July 11, 2012, Seoul, Korea — Freescale Semiconductor (NYSE: FSL, www.freescale.com) is expanding its family of Vybrid controller solutions in the automotive market through semiconductor-enabled software designed to provide connected radio, entry-level infotainment systems, and reconfigurable instrument panels to major vehicles. Vybrid automotive devices can reduce total software investment and effort and shorten time-to-market by addressing up to 80% of a car manufacturer's development needs with production-grade software and comprehensive support.

In-vehicle audio systems are rapidly evolving from basic radio and CD players into connected systems that provide entertainment and information from various sources. Consumers are increasingly expecting advanced features in newly purchased vehicles, such as voice commands, smartphone integration, and interactive streaming audio.

"As almost all consumers use smart mobile devices, expectations for connectivity features within vehicles are rising rapidly," said Ray Cornyn, Senior Vice President of Freescale’s Automotive MCU (Microcontroller) business unit. "The Vybrid automotive solution is a solution that can dramatically expand the capabilities of driver information systems at a price point suitable for mainstream vehicles." "Freescale reduces the workload of system development companies by providing complete software-hardware solutions that go beyond the semiconductor stage," he said.

Semiconductor support software
According to the GENIVI® Alliance, infotainment development costs average between $20 million and $50 million USD, with software costs already accounting for more than half of the total and expected to continue increasing in the future. Vybrid automotive solutions provide all the capabilities designers need to rapidly transition from the concept stage to productization, including automotive-grade BSPs (Board Support Packages) based on MQX and Linux operating systems, application software ready for immediate mass production, pre-integrated partner software, reference designs, application notes, key development environments, and a rich integration system of third-party and open-source resources.

Freescale's recently announced Vybrid controller solution is based on a unique asymmetric multiprocessing architecture platform that builds upon Freescale's tradition of leading MCU (microcontroller) development and multicore design. The Vybrid platform integrates with ARM® Cortex™-A and Cortex™-M cores to reduce complexity and cost in automotive applications while enhancing system security. The new Vybrid controller solution, together with the i.MX application processor, is the source that enables Freescale to provide an overwhelmingly wide range of scalable ARM architecture-based solutions capable of supporting infotainment solutions ranging from native and connected radios to high-end multi-core infotainment systems with best-in-class graphics capabilities.

Furthermore, Freescale supplies software solutions in areas such as Bluetooth® wireless connectivity, Human-to-Machine Interface (MHI) tools, and voice echo cancellation and noise cancellation in collaboration with carefully selected, industry-leading partners possessing extensive automotive experience and embedded systems know-how. Additionally, by shortening time-to-market through the pre-integration of partner solutions, production-ready components can be reliably optimized in terms of both performance and memory usage.

Freescale has partnered with Altia, Sybase, Cybercom, and Alango Technologies to provide automotive customers with a best-in-class user interface, reliable Bluetooth connectivity, and hands-free functionality for high-quality voice communication. These partners also supported the development of the Vybrid connected radio platform and a fully reconfigurable entry-level automotive dashboard, which will be showcased at the Freescale Technology Forum in San Antonio this week.

Target System Integration Division
Future in-vehicle systems will include the convergence of core safety functions and existing telematics and digital entertainment applications. To minimize size, weight, power, cost, and electronic complexity, it is essential to integrate these functions into a single computing platform.

• Vybrid automotive solutions can handle both MCU and MPU tasks on a single chip through a unique dual-core (Cortex-A5 + Cortex-M4) architecture, providing performance of over 850 DMIPS.
• An integrated video ADC that can be directly connected to one or more analog cameras ensures the lowest system costs and allows for easy compliance with the upcoming requirements for rear cameras for safety purposes.
• With ample 1.5MB of on-chip SRAM and various package options, it can be expanded from basic low-cost connected radios without external DRAM to entry-level infotainment systems with dual displays.
• Innovative 2D-ACE and integrated OpenVG™ hardware acceleration significantly reduce memory requirements and provide a rich and attractive user interface.
• Standard vehicle connectivity features are provided via an integrated CAN controller, MLB, UART/LIN, and Ethernet supporting IEEE® 1588.
• Connectivity to consumer electronics devices such as smartphones, tablets, and Bluetooth-enabled devices is provided through a dual USB 2.0 OTG (on-the-go) controller (including an integrated PHY) and various serial interfaces such as UART, SPI, and I2S.
• Vybrid VF Series devices are included in Freescale’s Product Longevity Program and are guaranteed supply for a minimum of 10 years. Terms of agreement and a list of available products can be found at freescale.com/productlongevity.