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News Release from: Freescale Semiconductor | Subject: ColdFire licensing programme
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial
Team on 17 November 2006
ColdFire cores are released for SoC
duties
Freescale Semiconductor has initiated a ColdFire licensing programme for the embedded design community.
Broadening customer access to one of the industry's most popular 32bit microcontroller (MCU) architectures, Freescale Semiconductor has initiated a ColdFire licensing programme for the embedded design community Licensing ColdFire technology gives customers unprecedented design flexibility using a proven technology with nearly three decades of evolutionary development
This article was originally published on Electronicstalk on 20 Mar 2001 at 8.00am (UK)
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The V2 ColdFire core is available now for licensing through IPextreme, semiconductor intellectual property (IP) licensing specialists.
Specifically, IPextreme plans to market, sell and support the V2 ColdFire core to system-on-chip (SoC) designers seeking to integrate the core and other functions onto a single chip, helping them save time and money.
Freescale plans to open licensing to additional ColdFire cores in 2007 and beyond.
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"ColdFire has a rich heritage in the embedded market, and we are pleased to bring the architecture to a broader audience through our IP commercialisation programme", said Warren Savage, IPextreme CEO.
"Now SoC designers can work with Freescale and IPextreme to access and implement ColdFire microcontroller cores and other functionality to speed time to market and reduce system cost and complexity".
By acquiring a licence to the V2 ColdFire core, high-volume embedded system manufacturers are able to create their own low-power, highly integrated 32bit application-specific integrated circuit (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", said Tony Massimini, Chief of Technology at Semico Research Corporation.
"Freescale and IPextreme's licensing programme 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".
"The ColdFire licensing programme is a key milestone in our Controller Continuum roadmap, broadening and deepening our market penetration within the 32bit control industry", said Mike McCourt, Vice President and General Manager of Freescale's Microcontroller Division.
"The licensing programme gives customers the design freedom and flexibility to develop application-specific solutions that provide control, connectivity and security for a wide array of consumer and industrial products".
Based on a memory-configurable hierarchical architecture that is 100% synthesisable, the V2 ColdFire core is designed specifically for software reuse and ease of integration into custom designs.
ASIC designs based on the V2 core will be software-compatible with all ColdFire standard products and cycle accurate with V2-based devices.
When implemented on 130nm process technology, the V2 core supports up to 166MHz of performance using a variable-length RISC architecture that allows instructions to be 16, 32 or 48bit long.
The entire ColdFire family of embedded controllers is supported by world-class development tools, including Freescale's CodeWarrior software suite and tools from Freescale's third-party partners, such as Green Hills Software, Mentor Graphics and Wind River Systems.
IPextreme plans to market, license and support the V2 ColdFire core to system-on-chip (SoC) designers seeking to integrate the core and other functions onto a single chip.
To help designers reduce time to market, a standard product platform (SPP) that includes the V2 core is also available now from IPextreme.
The SPP is a set of tested and silicon-proven peripherals that can be easily used to build large, complex systems.
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