March 15, 2012, Seoul, Korea – Freescale Semiconductor (NYSE: FSL, www.freescale.com ) announced that it is introducing the new Kinetis L Series microcontrollers built on ARM® Cortex™-M0+ processors at DESIGN West in San José, California, emphasizing its role as a leader in ARM®-based embedded processing. Alpha samples of the Kinetis L Series will be available starting in the second quarter of 2012.

The reason Freescale was able to introduce the Kinetis L-series devices early is the close partnership maintained between Freescale and ARM during the Cortex-M0+ core development process. Freescale actively supported ARM in defining and developing the world's most energy-efficient processors and was a key partner in ARM's design of processors that meet the demanding energy efficiency, cost sensitivity, and ease of use requirements of entry-level applications such as home appliances, portable medical systems, smart meters, lighting, and power and motor control systems.

Based on over 30 years of experience in MCU development, Freescale provided significant insights when defining and verifying new processors, particularly in the areas of I/O processing and debug support. Through such close collaboration, the L Series entry-level MCU family was created, combining the excellent energy efficiency, ease of use, performance, peripheral set, demand base, and scalability of the Kinetis 32-bit MCU portfolio while leveraging the low-power, high-performance capabilities unique to the ARM Cortex architecture.

"Reza Kazerounian, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Freescale’s Automotive, Industrial, and Multi-Market Solutions Group, stated, 'Because Freescale maintained a close partnership with ARM while designing and developing the new cores, we secured our position as the top MCU supplier for producing and introducing Cortex-M0+ based MCUs and were able to continue Freescale’s strategy for selling new products based on ARM architecture. Freescale’s new Kinetis L-series MCUs will significantly expand design options available for creating next-generation embedded applications that are smarter, smaller, and more energy-efficient.'"

"Mike Inglis, Executive Vice President and General Manager of ARM Processor Business Unit, said, 'Freescale was the first supplier to mass-produce Cortex-M4 processor-based MCUs, and now we are taking a leading role in ARM processors using Cortex-M0+ processors.'" "With the addition of the L series to the Kinetis line, Freescale is building a very broad and highly scalable ARM Cortex-M MCU portfolio in the industry, ranging from affordable entry-level products based on ARM Cortex-M0+ processors to devices up to 4MB, 200MHz based on Cortex-M4 processors," he said.

Kinetis L series MCU
Manufactured using Freescale's low-leakage, 90nm Thin Film Storage (TFS) process technology, the Kinetis L Series combines exceptional dynamic and standby current with superior processing performance, enabling power-critical designs even in 8-bit and 16-bit MCUs and beyond. With a wide range of on-chip flash memory densities and extensive options for analog, connectivity, and HMI peripherals, greater intelligence can be achieved in a variety of applications.

Developers considering 32-bit solutions typically view the ease of use of entry-level designs as a barrier, but the Kinetis L Series addresses this requirement. Through the features included in the MCU and the accompanying demand-driven build package, the device can be easily visualized and experienced, allowing for rapid utilization of new device performance. Consequently, developers can leverage the maximum performance of the Kinetis L Series MCU while maintaining the fast development cycles typical of entry-level designs.

Upward migration through the Kinetis portfolio is possible by utilizing DSP performance and advanced feature integration through compatible Kinetis K-series devices (built on ARM Cortex-M4 processors).

Further details on the Kinetis L Series product family will be announced at the Freescale Technology Forum in June 2012, accompanied by application-focused demos and intensive customer training sessions. More details can be found at www.freescale.com/kinetis/Lseries .

ARM Cortex-M0+ processor
The ARM Cortex-M0+ processor replaces the previous generation Cortex-M0 with a true 8-bit version while maintaining compatibility with all Cortex-M class processors. This allows designers to reuse existing compilers and debug tools. The enhancements of the new ARM Cortex-M0+ processor are as follows:
• Faster branch instruction execution with a reduced 2-stage pipeline
• Single-cycle access to I/O and critical peripherals
• Optimized access to program memory
• The linear 4GB address space eliminates the need for paging, reducing software complexity and ensuring a more 8-bit-like user experience.
• Rapidly identify bugs without additional I/O resources using micro-trace buffers that provide a low-cost tracing solution.

Establishing a comprehensive demand base
As entry-level applications migrate from 8-bit and 16-bit to Kinetis 32-bit MCU solutions, tightly integrated demand-based resources are essential to fully utilize the new system resources. The Kinetis L Series can utilize a comprehensive demand-based package standard consisting of Freescale CodeWarrior IDE, MQX RTOS and related middleware, as well as support for a wide range of ARM-linked systems.

Demo at DESIGN West
Freescale will exhibit the ARM Cortex-M0+ core from March 26 to 29 at the DESIGN West booth #1604 at the McEnery Convention Center in San Jose.