June 24, 2015, Seoul, Korea — Freescale Semiconductor (www.freescale.co.kr) announced the new Kinetis K8x multi-purpose microcontroller (MCU) family at the Freescale Technology Forum (FTF), providing the highest level of integrated security available on the ARM® Cortex®-M platform.

Previously, building secure embedded applications required up to three ICs: a main processor, a secondary processor for security roles to perform encryption functions, and, in some cases, an IC for physical tamper protection. The newly released Kinetis K8x MCU family performs all these functions in a single MCU to reduce cost, size, and power consumption. Freescale has implemented superior security features in this general-purpose MCU family to provide secure connectivity for IoT (Internet of Things) applications such as POS equipment, smart energy gateways, home automation and building control, portable medical devices, and wearable devices.

Steve Tateosian, Director of the MCU Platform Business Unit at Freescale Microcontroller Group, stated, “MCUs play a key role in innovative new end-node applications across a wide range of markets, and for the advancement of the IoT (Internet of Things), these MCUs must enable product designs that provide high security,” adding, “Freescale is leading the industry in protecting IoT end nodes.” “We have been continuously advancing the security feature portfolio of products based on Kinetis MCUs and have developed the new K8x MCU family to address the security challenges of the future IoT (Internet of Things),” he said.

The first ARM® Cortex®-M MCU with hardware asymmetric encryption capabilities

The Kinetis K8x is the first multi-purpose MCU family based on ARM Cortex®-M technology with hardware asymmetric encryption capabilities, providing superior cryptographic processing power. Because authentication is faster than software implementation, it meets the demands of modern communication protocols while freeing up code space and increasing power efficiency. As the industry's first MCU with patent-pending instant decryption of external serial NOR flash, the Kinetis K8x MCU family supports execution from encrypted external memory, enabling secure scalability. The Kinetis K8x MCU family's embedded tamper-proof features protect against physical and passive attacks, and the combination of these cutting-edge technologies delivers world-class security across a wide range of applications.

The Kinetis K8x MCU family addresses the scalability challenges customers face when designing for the rapidly growing Internet of Things (IoT) market. Pushing beyond the boundaries of traditional MCUs, Kinetis K8x devices utilize SD and eMMC with quad and octal support, DRAM, and modern serial memory, along with XIP (execute in place) capabilities. Large-capacity cache memory reduces latency and power consumption when using external memory. Additionally, boot and serial NOR flash options enable further scalability. Freescale supplies Kinetis devices with multiple pin arrays and software compatibility, offering scalable security levels. Additionally, various memory interfaces provide the ability to securely update firmware and reduce product development time.

The Kinetis K8x MCU supports design flexibility through available FlexIO peripherals. Additional functionality can be provided by emulating various serial, parallel, or custom interfaces using software drivers provided in the Kinetis Software Development Kit (SDK). Further system cost and power efficiency optimizations are realized through a subset of connected functions that operate with individual voltage supplies for GPIO pins and mixed-voltage applications. Additionally, current power consumption can be tailored to specific uses through multiple static and dynamic chip power configurations.

Kinetis K8x MCU family demo at FTF

At the Freescale Technology Forum (FTF), Freescale plans to focus on showcasing various security features as well as FlexIO peripheral capabilities of the Kinetis K8x MCU family. In a Kinetis K81-based POS reference design targeting payment card applications, they will introduce a secure mesh, chip security, and tamper-proof pins for cryptographic drivers. Other scheduled demos include a camera that connects to the FlexIO peripherals of the Kinetis K80 MCU and utilizes software drivers to transmit, receive, and store camera data.

Demand-based options providing flexibility

Freescale simplifies the design of secure IoT end-node products and accelerates time-to-market through complete demand-based support for the Kinetis K8x MCU family. This includes easy-to-implement software drivers from the Kinetis SDK that support public-key cryptography. Customers can reduce design time by utilizing hardware demand-based options with virtually unlimited memory resources. Application development for K8x MCUs is supported via Freescale Freedom and Tower development boards, including the TWR-PoS-K81 payment application reference design.

Supply situation

Freescale is currently supplying Kinetis K8x MCU samples and development boards to major customers worldwide. Mass production of the K8x MCU is scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2015, and inquiries regarding pricing or additional information can be made through Freescale Korea (www.freescale.co.kr) or domestic distributors.