Motorola boasts a billion in automotive MCUs

Motorola has secured more than $1 billion (US) in design wins from global automotive customers over the next five years for its high-performance 16bit HCS12 MCU family.

Motorola's Semiconductor Products Sector has secured more than $1 billion (US) in design wins from global automotive customers over the next five years for its high-performance 16bit HCS12 MCU family.

This achievement comes just one year after introducing the first device in the family, showing a strong commitment from automakers who plan to use these HCS12 MCUs starting in model year 2003 to help enable smarter, highly personalised cars.

"Motorola continues to build on its long legacy as the number one worldwide semiconductor supplier for the automotive industry", said Paul Grimme, vice president and general manager of Motorola's 8/16bit Microcontroller Division.

"We bring to each product a unique understanding of the history and future direction of the automotive market and its technology requirements.

We have achieved this success by working closely with our customers and continuously improving technology to help automotive electronics manufacturers produce higher performance, more intelligent and cost-effective systems".

According to industry analyst firm Strategy Analytics, Motorola holds a 13% market share in the automotive market, nearly double the market share of the closest competitor.

"While Motorola remains committed to meeting the needs of its long-standing automotive customers, our portfolio also includes a wide range of products that are ideally suited for a variety of markets including consumer, industrial, networking and wireless communications.

We see opportunities for embedded controllers everywhere, and by 2005 we think the average person will interact with over 110 controllers every day", remarked Grimme.

"Our experience in designing products to meet the stringent reliability and performance requirements of automotive environments has given us a leg up in meeting the performance demands of many industries".

Based on the industry standard 68HC12 architecture, the HCS12 family helps reduce customers' design times by providing an upward migration path from Motorola's 68HC08, 68HC11, 68HC12 and other MCU architectures.

Built around a powerful processor core and integrating third-generation 0.25 micron Split Gate Flash memory technology for maximum data retention and write-erase cycling, the HCS12 devices are designed for fast programming times that enable quick field updates.

The first member of the HCS12 family (the MC9S12DP256), introduced in November 2000, as well as other available family members, are initially aimed at body electronics applications, such as instrument clusters, power management and gateway modules, HVAC and lighting controllers.

Motorola plans to introduce additional HCS12 devices in early 2002 for industrial and other consumer-based markets.

The entire series benefits from Motorola's SoC design methodology leveraging the company's vast library of peripherals to provide highly integrated, microcontrollers and embedded processors with reduced chip design, qualification and manufacturing cycle times.

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