TI intros Sitara AM335x ARM microprocessors

DALLAS, USA: Imagine upgrading from ARM9-based product designs to add 3D interactive touch screens, higher resolution displays, faster performance and multiple, flexible integrated connectivity options for a more robust offering — all while keeping design costs and power levels low. Visualize taking these new products to market in six months with an inexpensive development platform and free, complete software development kit. Texas Instruments Inc. (TI) now makes this design vision a reality with its new Sitara AM335x ARM Cortex-A8 microprocessors.

“The new Sitara AM335x ARM Cortex-A8 microprocessors from TI allow designers to explore infinite possibilities for upgrading their systems without increasing cost or power consumption,” said Dipti Vachani, general manager, Sitara ARM microprocessors, TI. “Moreover, TI gives you all the tools, free software and 24/7 support to design. That's true design ease — paramount to every TI embedded processor offering.”

Starting at $5 and consuming as low as 7 mW of power, the AM335x ARM Cortex-A8 microprocessors provide low power consumption, prolonging battery life and reducing heat emissions, to enable portable, pocket-sized, fan-less applications. Offering developers high performance with advanced 3D graphics capabilities, touch screen controller and sophisticated peripherals all on a single chip reduces printed circuit board (PCB) space, complexity and bill of materials (BOM) costs by as much as $40 for smaller sized applications such as portable navigation, handheld gaming and educational devices, home and building automation and more.

“TI's feature-packed AM335x ARM microprocessors and the associated software and hardware development boards provide embedded system designers with low-cost, low-power and easy-to-use solutions,” said Jim McGregor, chief technology strategist, In-Stat. “Total system solutions like these allow embedded designers to take advantage of the huge investments in ARM core technology and open source software, such as the Android operating system, to ensure a roadmap for future investments in silicon and software.”

The AM335x ARM Cortex-A8 microprocessors offer multiple robust development tools. Designers can quickly and easily begin development with the $89 BeagleBone, the newest, best-value open source hardware platform from the BeagleBoard.org community. Designers can also use the full-featured AM335x evaluation module (EVM) with a seven-inch LCD touch screen and access to all peripherals for $995.

The EVM includes TI’s WL1271 single-chip 802.11b/g/n + Bluetooth technology in a broadly available module and is the first widely available platform to enable Wi-Fi Direct. The combination of the AM335x ARM Cortex-A8 microprocessors and proven WL1271 solution provides a very low-cost, high-performance wireless connectivity platform.