ColdFire Processor Runs NEC’s Home Media Server

NEC has chosen Freescale Semiconductor’s highly integrated, low-power MCF5328 ColdFire processor to provide remote-access capabilities for its Lui line of Valuestar R desktop PCs for home media servers. The processor balances performance and power efficiency, enabling a PC remote server board to operate within a 1-W envelope.

Integrating a Fast Ethernet controller and an I²C bus interface, the MCF5328 allows flexible, industry-standard connectivity. The device runs on the uClinux operating system supplied by Freescale, an important consideration for reusing Linux software and reducing software development cycle times for NEC’s server platform. Other features include a USB host On-The-Go controller, 32 kbytes of SRAM, and an SVGA LCD controller that helps reduce overall system cost by supporting a variety of LCD panels. The device also has an enhanced multiply-accumulate (eMAC) unit and an integrated SDRAM controller that supports double-data-rate (DDR) memory.

The Lui brand stands for “life with ubiquitous integrated” solutions. Launched by NEC Corp. and NEC Personal Products Ltd., the line provides an innovative way to use client/server devices in home networks. Based on this new Lui brand, NEC’s home server/client solutions enable centralized management of digital content, such as video, music and photos. At the heart of the Lui system is a home-server PC that allows users to access their digital content with a PC or other remote terminals in any room of the house.

NEC
www.nec.com