Freescale Demonstrates Innovative Quad-Core ARM® AP

Demonstration of the highly scalable i.MX 6 quad-core processor at the Freescale Technology Forum

June 23, 2011, San Antonio, USA (Freescale Technology Forum) – Freescale Semiconductor [NYSE: FSL] unveiled the industry's highest-performance quad-core application processor at this event. In particular, the forum highlighted a live demonstration showing the multimedia capabilities of the Freescale i.MX 6 quad application processor.

Designed to provide a limitless consumer experience, the i.MX 6 series is scalable from one to four CPU cores to provide optimal performance headroom for most of today's modern consumer electronics applications. i.MX 6 series devices, which support pin compatibility across product families, integrate various IPs based on ARM® Cortex™-A9 cores to provide excellent performance and scalability to manufacturers targeting tablets, e-readers, automotive infotainment, and other smart mobile devices.

"Freescale announced its development plans for the i.MX 6 series at CES 2011, and we are pleased to demonstrate the first working version of this highly precise semiconductor six months later," said Bernd Lienhard, General Manager of Freescale's Multimedia Applications business unit. "With the plans proceeding successfully, customers can now look forward to the scalability, performance, and energy efficiency of Freescale's attractive, latest family of high-performance application processors."

i.MX 6 Series Information
The i.MX 6 series consists of single-core i.MX 6Solo, dual-core i.MX 6Dual, and quad-core i.MX 6Quad processor families. Product features include dual-stream 1080p H.264 video processing supporting 3D class video decoding, Freescale’s Triple Play graphics architecture consisting of console-style 3D graphics with 200 MT/s performance, a separate 2D BLT engine for UI acceleration, and a separate 2D OpenVG engine for vector-based graphics.

The i.MX 6 series provides the best system design flexibility through the following diverse and extensive features.

• 1-core, 2-core, and 4-core configurations
• Supports simultaneous display of up to 2 (Dual QXGA, 2048 x 1536) or 4 (Dual WUXGA, 1920x1200 + Dual HD1080) displays
• Triple Play graphics architecture consisting of three separate physical graphics engines optimized for game, UI, and control-related graphics
• DDR3/LP-DDR2, BGA/POP Packaging, PCIe/SATA/GbE, USB/SD/MIPI, CAN Controller/MLB150 Bus, LVDS
• 64-bit memory bus

The use of common SoC IP building blocks ensures software and development tool compatibility across the entire series, and reduces overall product complexity and development costs through integrated power management capabilities, extensive integrated I/O, and pin compatibility within the package family. Support for PC supply chain peripherals includes DDR3, 0.8mm pitch packaging, PCIe, SATA, and GbE, and supports Google® Android™, QNX®, Linux, and Microsoft® operating systems.

"The demonstration of the first working version of the i.MX 6 Series semiconductor is the latest example of Freescale Networking and Multimedia Group's strong product development capabilities," said Linley Gwennap, Chairman and Founder of the Linley Group. "The i.MX 6 Series offers advantages in performance, scalability, and power efficiency that are undeniably attractive to OEMs targeting the latest applications, including high-end consumer electronics and automotive entertainment."

While most devices today require multiple sensors to enhance the user experience, Freescale has been able to tightly integrate i.MX processors and Freescale sensors into a single solution. This reduces the workload for designers and facilitates the market entry of new consumer electronics devices. Furthermore, Freescale is developing compatible system power management solutions and comprehensive i.MX reference designs to help OEMs shorten time-to-market.

More details about the i.MX 6 series can be found at www.freescale.com/imx .