Freescale launches new automotive MCUs, including dual-core devices

Nov. 9, 2006
Freescale Semiconductor (www.freescale.com) has launched a 32-bit microcontroller, MPC5561, especially for adaptive cruise control and other sensor-based safety applications, and a dual-core 32-bit family, MPC5510, for automotive body electronics.

Freescale Semiconductor has launched a 32-bit microcontroller, MPC5561, especially for adaptive cruise control and other sensor-based safety applications, and a dual-core 32-bit family, MPC5510, for automotive body electronics. The firm also introduced the RAppID ToolBox, software for rapid prototyping based on Freescale’s MPC5500 automotive MCU family.
The MPC5561 supports sensor-based automotive safety systems such as adaptive cruise control, blind-spot detection, backup warning, occupant detection and active lighting systems. Paul Grimme, senior vice president and general manager of Freescale’s Transportation & Standard Products Group, said those applications typically require small-footprint PCBs and compact, highly integrated single-chip MCUs.

Grimme said the MPC5561 integrates high-performance processing capabilities, flash memory and industry-standard interfaces, including FlexRay, on an automotive-grade system-on-chip (SoC). Built on Freescale’s MPC5500 automotive MCU platform with Power Architecture technology, the MPC5561 features an enhanced, 132 MHz e200 core and a single-instruction, multiple-data (SIMD) engine to support digital signal processing and floating point-intensive applications.

Features include 1 MB of embedded flash memory with error correction coding (ECC) and read-while-write capability; 192 KB of static RAM, also with ECC; a 32 KB unified cache, with line locking, that can be configured as additional RAM; two FlexCAN controllers, compatible with TouCAN; four eSCI serial communications interfaces and two deserial serial peripheral interfaces (DSPI); a dual-channel FlexRay controller, and a 32-channel enhanced direct memory access controller. The MCU features 5 V and 3.3 V input/output, a 5 V a/d controller, a 3.3 V/1.8 V bus, and a 1.5 V core. It is packaged in a 324-pin plastic ball grid array. Software and pin compatibility enable developers to reuse their legacy software and hardware architectures and protect their investment in application code and development tools.

The MPC5510, also built on Power Architecture and e200 cores, is Freescale’s first line of 32-bit automotive MCUs featuring a dual-core architecture with flexible low-power modes. It is said to deliver a range of price/performance options and to support extensive communications capabilities, including the FlexRay, CAN and LIN protocols.

“As automotive architectures evolve toward more complex hierarchical networks, automakers require higher-performance body electronics modules to support gateway functions, as well as higher functional integration and centralized services, such as diagnostic, reprogramming and power management,” said Mike McCourt, vice president and general manager of Freescale’s microcontroller dvision. “The MPC5510 family addresses these needs with a dual-core architecture.

“The MPC5510 family also enables customers to migrate to higher levels of integration in central body electronics and connect the body electronics domain to a FlexRay network,” McCourt continued, adding that automakers increasingly are adopting the FlexRay protocol as the vehicle “backbone” network and integrating more functionality into the central body controller.
McCourt said the MPC5510 family can help reduce the number of modules in the car cockpit area through higher integration of gateway and body electronics functions. Target applications include body control modules (BCMs), gateways linking FlexRay to CAN and LIN networks, instrument cluster controllers, center stack display controllers, and smart junction boxes.
The MPC5510 family scales from 48 MHz MCUs with 384 KB of embedded flash, low pin count and reduced feature sets to 80 MHz devices with up to 1 MB of flash (with ECC and RWW) and advanced communications peripherals. Dual-core configurations include a 16/32-bit variable length encoding (VLE) capability designed to improve code density and reduce memory requirements. The MCUs are supported by a crossbar switch architecture and 16-channel enhanced direct memory access (eDMA). Interfaces include up to six FlexCAN modules, an optional dual-channel FlexRay protocol controller, up to six eSCI serial communication interfaces with integrated LIN state machine, and up to three DSPI interfaces. The MCUs are available in 144-pin 20 mm x 20 mm LQFP or 208-pin 17 mm x17 mm MAPBGA packages.

Freescale’s RAppID ToolBox is a rapid prototyping software solution designed to help engineers reduce development time and cost when migrating from their application modeling environment to “real-world” production implementations on Freescale’s 32-bit automotive MCU platforms. The toolbox can be used for automotive applications such as engine and transmission control, anti-lock braking systems and chassis/suspension systems.

Salim Momin, director of Freescale’s Virtual Garage software and services business unit, said control engineers can use the RAppID ToolBox to determine how their applications will perform on target MCUs early in the development cycle and then work on optimization at the model level rather than at the code level.

The RAppID ToolBox leverages the modeling and simulation environment provided by The MathWorks product family with an add-on blockset for MATLAB and Simulink and an embedded target for Real-Time Workshop and Real-Time Workshop Embedded Coder. It supports Sgnal Processing Toolbox for optimized single instruction multiple data (SIMD) functions and stateflow for interactive design and simulation. The toolbox automatically generates the necessary software, from initialization to device drivers to schedulers, including support for Freescale's OSEKturbo real-time operating system (RTOS). The toolbox-generated code integrates seamlessly with commercial automatic code generation tools, such as TargetLink from dSPACE and Real-Time Workshop and Real-Time Workshop Embedded Coder.
The first RAppID ToolBox offering for the MPC5554 MCU is available from Freescale’s Virtual Garage. Software support for additional MPC5500 family devices is planned for the future.

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