Freescale Kinetis 32-bit Microcontroller Sets New Record in Industry Benchmark Tests

ARM® Cortex™-M4 Technology-based Device Achieves Best-Ever EEMBC CoreMark/MHz Results for Cortex-M Class Microcontroller

June 16, 2011, Seoul — A device belonging to Freescale Semiconductor [NYSE: FSL, www.freescale.co.kr ]’s Kinetis 32-bit MCU (microcontroller) family has demonstrated exceptional performance across the entire CPU frequency range in industry-standard benchmark tests. The Kinetis K60N512VMD100 MCU provided the first certified results for an ARM® Cortex™-M4 technology-based MCU, demonstrating superior core architecture performance in benchmarks using EEMBC® (Embedded Microprocessor Benchmark Consortium) CoreMark™.

This Kinetis MCU achieved a maximum test score of 2.119 CoreMarks/MHz when executing code in flash at the device's maximum frequency, which is the best result recorded to date in the ARM Cortex M class. Details of the certification results can be found at www.coremark.org .

The CoreMark benchmark, developed by EEMBC, utilizes commonly used embedded processing functions and is specifically designed to test the capabilities of processor cores. Running CoreMark produces a single numerical score, allowing users to quickly compare multiple processors. CoreMark can test a processor's pipeline structure, read/write operations, and integer and control operations.

"Freescale was the first company to bring ARM Cortex-M4 core-based products to market, and we have now set another important milestone," said Geoff Lees, Senior Vice President of Freescale's Industrial and Mixed Markets MCU business unit. "These benchmark results further definitively prove the capabilities of the Kinetis MCU family."

In June 2010, Freescale announced the Kinetis family of 90-nanometer (nm) 32-bit MCUs based on the ARM Cortex-M4 core, and is currently supplying six product families (K10, K20, K30, K40, K50, and K60) in sample quantities. This family includes a wide range of ultra-low-power MCUs with rich analog, human-to-machine interface, and safety and security features. Furthermore, Kinetis-linked systems are steadily expanding through comprehensive hardware and software support packages from Freescale and key ARM-linked system partners.

Achieve excellent results
The Kinetis platform architecture is designed to operate energy-efficiently, allowing users to maximize the amount of work performed per unit of energy consumed. Fast and reliable memory access is essential for efficient processing. The Kinetis FMC (Flash Memory Controller) manages the interface between the 32-bit bus master and multi-bank flash. Furthermore, the Kinetis product family incorporates numerous advanced architectural features to minimize exposed flash access time in the system. These architectural features are becoming an increasingly critical factor in system performance as operating frequencies increase.

Performance results by frequency
The figure below shows the efficiency of the Kinetis platform architecture, which maintains excellent performance across the entire frequency range.

One-stop shopping support
All five Kinetis product families come with a powerful software and toolset, such as Freescale’s fully featured, free MQX real-time operating system (including integrated Ethernet and USB stacks), and support for cost-effective graphic LCDs and encryption plugins. Additionally, Kinetis MCUs come with the Eclipse™-based CodeWarrior 10.1 IDE (Integrated Development Environment) featuring Processor Expert, providing a visual automation framework to shorten development times for complex embedded applications. Along with the Kinetis K40 and K60 family tower system MCU modules, Freescale continues to support rapid evaluation and prototyping through an ever-growing range of peripheral modules, including Wi-Fi, sensing, and precision analog. Kinetis MCUs are also supported by a wide range of ARM-linked systems, including IAR Systems®, Keil™, Green Hills® software, Segger, and CodeSourcery.