SCIENCE

Freescale Semiconductor is delivering the first devices from its recently announced Kinetis family of 90 nanometer (nm) 32-bit microcontrollers (MCUs) based on the new ARM Cortex-M4 core. The first five families (K10, K20, K30, K40 and K60) are now available for customer sampling and include a broad portfolio of ultra-low-power MCUs with rich analog, human-machine interface, connectivity and safety and security functionality. In addition, Freescale is introducing a comprehensive hardware and software enablement package from Freescale and leading ARM ecosystem partners.  

“Since we announced the plans for our Kinetis portfolio in June, we’ve made our vision a reality,” said Reza Kazerounian, senior vice president and general manager of Freescale’s Microcontroller Solutions Group. “We’re now sampling the first five Kinetis families, and we’ve gone beyond silicon to provide a comprehensive ecosystem of development support.”

More than 20 alpha customers around the globe, including Philips Healthcare, have been developing products with Kinetis silicon and tools. These early adopters have given Freescale valuable insight into the devices’ operation under “real-world” conditions to help ensure the best possible experience for future customers using the new families.

One-stop-shop for enablement
Each of the five Kinetis families comes with a powerful suite of software and tools, including Freescale’s complimentary, full-featured MQX real-time operating system with integrated Ethernet and USB stacks, as well as support for graphics LCD and encryption plug-ins. Also bundled is the Eclipse-based CodeWarrior 10.0 integrated development environment (IDE) with Processor Expert – providing a visual and automated framework to accelerate the development of complex embedded applications. Freescale continues to enable advanced development through rapid evaluation and prototyping with new Kinetis K40 and K60 family Tower System modules. Kinetis MCUs are also supported by the expansive ARM ecosystem, including development tools from IAR Systems, Keil, Green Hills Software, Segger and CodeSourcery.

Energy-efficient designs
Freescale has awarded Kinetis its Energy Efficient Solutions mark, reflecting the degree to which power efficiency has been incorporated into the Kinetis design. Products that qualify for the mark offer power management technologies and/or performance within a specific power budget that can be considered truly optimal and/or best-in-class. Kinetis MCUs offer multiple low-power operating modes, low-power touch sensing and a low-power integrated segment LCD controller, making them ideally suited for even the most demanding, power-conscious applications.   

Demonstrations and training
Freescale is showcasing Kinetis this week at electronica 2010 in Munich, Germany, and the ARM Technology Conference in Santa Clara, California. The digital signal processing (DSP) capabilities of the Cortex-M4 core, along with Freescale’s hardware and software design expertise, are being demonstrated in a variety of applications, including single-phase electricity metering, motor control, graphical LCD display and web serving solutions. Freescale is also collaborating with its global distribution partners to provide customer training seminars around the world starting in November and continuing into 2011.

Availability
Engineering samples of the K10, K20, K30, K40 and K60 Kinetis MCU families are now available in 144 MAPBGA packages with 256 KB or 512 KB of flash memory and Freescale’s FlexMemory (advanced EEPROM) technology. Samples of smaller-pin-count LQFP packages are expected to be available in early 2011, with full production planned from mid-2011.