Freescale Semiconductor has announced the first in a range of multicore automotive microcontrollers, its most powerful for this market.
The Qorivva 32-bit MPC5676R MCU offers four times the performance and double the memory space than the single-core MPC5566 MCU.
"For powertrain, our goal is to produce the most powerful and flexible MCUs that can simultaneously manage all the complex control of a modern engine, while giving designers the tools and software platforms they need to reduce system complexity," said Ray Cornyn, vice president of Freescale's Automotive MCU business.
The 90nm, dual-core MPC5676R MCU has 6Mbyte of on-chip flash memory, 384kbyte of on-chip RAM, three timing processor units and a 64-channel 12-bit analogue-to-digital converter.
The chip includes two parallel 180MHz 32-bit Power Architecture processors.
There are comms peripherals for CANbus and FlexRay.
The MCUs have the processor performance for powertrain control applications, including diesel, gasoline and natural gas engines and hybrid electric and plug-in electric vehicles.
Freescale is working with car manfacturer GM, to provide the MCUs to manage complex powertrain systems.
Each Qorivva MCU comes with a full run-time software solution, including AUTOSAR MCAL driver suites and AUTOSAR real-time operating system for single-core and multicore MCUs.
The MCUs also are supported by development tools, including compilers and multicore debuggers from Freescale development partners.
The Qorivva powertrain portfolio is now supported by a new eTPU compiler, debugger and simulator.
Freescale plans to offer evaluation kits and samples of the MPC5676R MCU in January 2012.
www.freescale.com
