Freescale expands tower system development platform to support Power Architecture processors and MCUs

Freescale Technology Forum TOKYO, JAPAN: Freescale Semiconductor is expanding its popular Tower System modular development platform to include a series of high-performance solutions based on Power Architecture technology.

A new Tower System module based on Power Architecture technology features the MPC8309 PowerQUICC communications processor, which is ideal for industrial, factory automation and entry-level networking applications. This new solution joins the existing MPC5125 module for industrial, networking, automotive, and human-machine interface (HMI) markets. Future modules in the Tower System series based on Power Architecture technology are planned to include Freescale’s QorIQ microprocessors (MPUs) and Freescale’s PX series of microcontrollers (MCUs).

Freescale has established industry-leading positions in networking, automotive, industrial and other growth markets by leveraging the scalability, energy efficiency and high performance of Power Architecture technology. The technology is at the heart of a broad range of innovative Freescale products, from sophisticated multicore processors engineered to meet and exceed the stringent performance requirements of next-generation networking applications to ruggedized, ultra-low-power microcontrollers designed for the world’s most cost-competitive embedded markets.

Freescale’s Tower System modules based on Power Architecture technology offer the richest feature sets found in the Tower System form factor. The Tower System provides a common development platform for Power Architecture devices that range in performance from 60 to 2550 Dhrystone million instructions per second (DMIPS).

Tower System solutions share the MQX real-time operating system (RTOS) and CodeWarrior integrated development environment (IDE), helping designers optimize their software investment by allowing reuse across a broad spectrum of Power Architecture MPUs and MCUs.

“The newest Tower System modules based on Power Architecture technology package Freescale’s embedded control and networking expertise in an affordable, rapid-prototyping platform for industrial applications,” said Dhiraj Handa, director and general manager of Freescale’s Customer Specific Products (CSP) business unit. “The MPC8309 processor module is an easy-to-use prototyping solution for applications such as robotic systems, industrial networking and factory automation.”