Freescale Shipments of 16-bit Automotive Microcontrollers Surpass 100 Million Units a Year.Industry-leading S12 MCU (1) (MicroController Unit) A computer on a single chip. See microcontroller. (2) (Multipoint Control Unit) A device that is used to moderate a videoconference of three or more end points (users at computers or groups of users Family Integrates Scalable Flash Memory, High-Performance Coprocessor coprocessor Additional processor used in some personal computers to perform specialized tasks such as extensive arithmetic calculations or processing of graphical displays. and FlexRay[TM] Technology AUSTIN, Texas -- Freescale Semiconductor Freescale Semiconductor, Inc. is an American semiconductor manufacturer. It was created by the divestiture of the Semiconductor Products Sector of Motorola in 2004. Freescale focuses their integrated circuit products on the automotive, embedded and communications markets. , the leading supplier of semiconductors to the automotive industry The automotive industry is the industry involved in the design, development, manufacture, marketing, and sale of motor vehicles. In 2006, more than 69 million motor vehicles, including cars and commercial vehicles were produced worldwide. , is now shipping its popular S12 16-bit automotive microcontrollers (MCUs) at a rate of more than 100 million units a year. The company achieved this volume shipment milestone while maintaining an exceptionally low defect rate of less than one part per million. And, the pace of S12 product shipments continues to grow significantly in 2007. Freescale S12 and S12X MCU families are designed to enable scalability, hardware and software reuse The ability to use software routines over again in new applications. This is one of the benefits of object technology. See object-oriented programming. , and compatibility across a broad array of automotive electronics platforms such as body, chassis and safety systems. The most widely adopted 16-bit architecture in the automotive market, the S12 family offers a broad range of performance and memory options (with on-chip flash scaling from 16KB to 1MB) and a smooth migration path to higher-performance S12X devices. "Reaching this significant shipment milestone is a testament to Freescale's strong global customer relationships and the broad market adoption of our 16-bit S12 automotive MCU portfolio," said Ray Cornyn, Freescale's automotive MCU operations manager See datacenter manager. . "The S12 and S12X families offer a full range of compatible, 16-bit price/performance options, providing greater flexibility for body electronics designers. As the leading supplier of automotive MCUs, we continue to evolve our portfolio to meet the market needs for zero-defect quality and support for critical automotive industry standards, such as FlexRay technology." High-performance coprocessor and FlexRay[TM] technology Freescale's S12 architecture features two integration innovations that are vital for high-performance 16-bit automotive system designs: an on-chip XGATE coprocessor and integrated FlexRay[TM] technology. Introduced on the S12X architecture in 2004, the RISC-based XGATE coprocessor addresses the design challenge of achieving higher MCU performance without the cost and complexity of adding separate processors. Running at twice the speed of the main CPU CPU in full central processing unit Principal component of a digital computer, composed of a control unit, an instruction-decoding unit, and an arithmetic-logic unit. and without any CPU processing overhead, the XGATE coprocessor is engineered to boost system performance by an additional 80 MIPS (Million Instructions Per Second) The execution speed of a computer. For example, .5 MIPS is 500,000 instructions per second; 100 MIPS is a hundred million instructions per second. at peak operation. S12X MCUs with XGATE are designed to deliver performance equivalent to many 32-bit MCUs, while retaining the low system cost and high code efficiency benefits of Freescale's S12 architecture. FlexRay technology provides up to 10 times the speed of existing communications protocols Hardware and software standards that govern data transmission between computers. The term "protocol" is very generic and is used for hundreds of different communications methods. A protocol may define the packet structure of the data transmitted or the control commands that manage the for automotive networks. This results in more nimble and versatile stability control systems, more precise engine management and weight-saving electronic "brake-by-wire" systems that eventually may replace bulky hydraulic brakes. Smallest FlexRay controller sampling In related news, Freescale has begun sampling the MC9S12XF MCU family to selected automotive manufacturers. The MC9S12XF family features the smallest FlexRay technology-enabled MCUs available in the industry. Based on Freescale's high-volume S12 architecture, the MC9S12XF family provides a high-performance distributed control solution for embedded Inserted into. See embedded system. nodes on FlexRay networks used in body, chassis and safety applications. In addition to offering FlexRay technology, the S12XF family devices integrate Freescale's performance-boosting XGATE coprocessor. For more information about Freescale's S12 and S12X families and automotive MCUs, visit www.freescale.com/files/pr/s12x.html. About Freescale Semiconductor Freescale Semiconductor, Inc. is a global leader in the design and manufacture of embedded semiconductors for the automotive, consumer, industrial, networking and wireless markets. The privately held company privately held company A firm whose shares are held within a relatively small circle of owners and are not traded publicly. is based in Austin, Texas, and has design, research and development, manufacturing or sales operations in more than 30 countries. Freescale is one of the world's largest semiconductor companies with 2006 sales of $6.4 billion (USD USD In currencies, this is the abbreviation for the U.S. Dollar. Notes: The currency market, also known as the Foreign Exchange market, is the largest financial market in the world, with a daily average volume of over US $1 trillion. ). www.freescale.com Freescale Technology Forum The Freescale Technology Forum (FTF FTF Face To Face (in person) FTF Freescale Technology Forum FTF Fair Trade Federation FTF First Things First (Chattanooga, TN family strengthening program) FTF First to Find ) has become the developer event of the year for the embedded semiconductor industry. The Forum, which debuted in 2005, has been enthusiastically received by the global developer community, drawing more than 12,000 attendees at FTF events worldwide since its inception. For more information about FTF events, please go to www.freescale.com/ftf. Reader Inquiry Response: Freescale Semiconductor P.O. Box 17927 Denver, CO 80217 USA Freescale[TM] and the Freescale logo are trademarks of Freescale Semiconductor, Inc. All other product or service names are the property of their respective owners. [c] Freescale Semiconductor, Inc. 2007. |
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