Freescale powers into 2011 as market share leader in eReaders

AUSTIN, USA: Freescale Semiconductor continues as the strong market share leader in applications processors for the fast-growing eReader market.

Building on the proven performance, integration and energy-efficiency of the i.MX processor family, Freescale announces its latest eReader design win and one of the industry’s first monolithic color eReader solutions in collaboration with E Ink.

Expanding its reach into the eReader market, Freescale is working with global eReading service Kobo, which uses the i.MX35 processor in its Kobo-branded eReaders. With their collection of more than 2.2 million books, newspapers and magazines, and relationships with major book and consumer electronics retailers worldwide, Kobo opens additional opportunities for Freescale’s growth in the dynamic eReader space.

The Kobo design win underscores Freescale’s continuing momentum in the eReader market. According to analyst firm In-Stat, Freescale is the worldwide leader in providing applications processors for eReader products. Published teardowns demonstrate that Freescale powers two of the top three eReaders on the market.

“As eReaders mature and evolve, Freescale is leveraging its technology leadership to help OEMs keep pace with demand for newer and more innovative designs,” said Bernd Lienhard, vice president and general manager of Freescale’s Multimedia Applications Division.

“Today, our i.MX technology enables the majority of eReaders on the market, and as the processor powering the exceptional eReading experience on the Kobo Wireless eReader, our presence in North America, Europe and Asia is expected to increase.”

Enabling color eReader solutions
In addition, Freescale recently collaborated with E Ink, the market leader for eReader electronic paper displays, to support color on a monolithic solution, which lowers costs by eliminating the need for an external controller.

Freescale’s i.MX508 applications processor allows manufacturers to use a single platform for entire eReader families, including both grayscale and color E Ink displays. This allows software sharing across platforms to speed time to market, and a more cost-competitive solution for end users.

“Freescale and E Ink have been constantly raising the bar on eReader performance,” said Sri Peruvemba, chief marketing officer for E Ink Holdings. “The i.MX508 processor driving E Ink’s Pearl and Triton display platforms is another step toward meeting market need for best-in-class monochrome and color electrophoretic displays.”

The highly integrated i.MX508 processor demonstrates Freescale’s relentless focus on system-level optimizations. Built on advanced ARM Cortex-A8 technology, the i.MX508 is designed to deliver the performance, energy efficiency and system cost savings necessary to help OEMs evolve and grow the dynamic eReader product category.

The SoC is notable for its support of next-generation eReader panels, which are expected to feature larger dimensions, faster page turns and significantly better resolution. The processor supports panel resolutions up to 2048 x1536 pixels at 106 hertz. Leveraging the ARM Cortex-A8 engine running at 800 MHz, the i.MX508 processor has the performance and scalability to quickly handle complex image manipulations and color processing.