Targeting the netbook market, Freescale Semiconductor is presenting what it calls a comprehensive solution designed to enable netbooks with 8.9-in. displays; eight hours of battery life between charges; and a retail price below $200. Based on the latest i.MX515 processor featuring ARM Cortex-A8 technology, the package includes software, components, and resources for quickly developing and deploying unique netbook products.
A netbook reference design based on the i.MX515 processor, created in partnership with Pegatron, is available and includes Canonical’s Ubuntu operating system, a power management IC from Freescale, the SGTL5000 low-power audio codec, and Adobe’s Flash Lite software and Flash Player for mobile phones and devices. Integrating an ARM Cortex-A8 core and manufactured using 65-nm process technology, the i.MX515 processor provides up to 2,100 Dhrystone MIPS and can scale in performance from 600 MHz to 1 GHz.
Power-management features include a dedicated, hardware-based video acceleration block. The reference design is available now and the i.MX515 is currently sampling to tier-one netbook customers. Volume production is planned for the second quarter.
Freescale Semiconductor
www.freescale.com