Munich, Germany:
A ColdFire licensing program initiated by Freescale Semiconductor has its sights set on the embedded design community. Licensing of the V2 ColdFire core is available through IPextreme Inc., a semiconductor intellectual property (IP) licensing specialist. IPextreme plans to market, sell, and support the V2 ColdFire core to SoC designers seeking to integrate the core and other functions onto one chip. Freescale plans to open licensing to additional ColdFire cores in 2007 and beyond.
By acquiring a license, highvolume embedded system manufacturers are able to craft their own low-power, highly integrated 32bit ASIC solutions containing a ColdFire core combined with their proprietary technology. ASIC devices based on ColdFire cores can be created quickly and cost-effectively to address emerging market opportunities requiring innovative, custom microcontroller designs.
"The ability to license ColdFire cores, available now for the first time in the 27-year history of the architecture, will give embedded designers greater choice and flexibility in their ASIC designs," says Tony Massimini, chief of technology at Semico Research Corp. "Freescale and IPextreme's licensing program will also help expand the market for ColdFire architecture within the embedded control community, and it will help broaden the availability of third-party ecosystem support for the architecture."