April 13, 2012 – CSR today announced the Quatro® 5300 series, a programmable imaging processor. The Quatro 5300 is a high-quality integrated solution for next-generation printers, scanners, and multifunction devices that meets the recently announced energy efficiency qualification requirements of the EU and the US.

The Quattro 3500, currently being sampled, reduces the overall system Bill of Material (BOM) cost and, through its programmable configuration and modular firmware platform, enables Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) to produce controllers for low-cost and mid-range products at a lower cost. It also allows for faster time-to-market for such products.

Neil Epstein, Senior Vice President of Product Marketing at CSR Document Imaging Group, stated, “The Quattro 5300 Series has established a new industry standard for integrated capabilities and is a prime example of continued innovation,” adding, “CSR will continue to expand its highly successful Quattro product line.”

He added, “The Quattro 5300 processor is already being used by several major trading partners to develop cost-effective products, and the products will be available in stores early next year,” emphasizing that “the various advantages of the Quattro 5300, such as groundbreaking cost reductions, will provide an attractive solution for OEMs looking to expand their market share and scale in other markets, including the price-sensitive BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) market.”

Industry-leading integration
The Quattro 5300 series has eliminated various types of external components that were commonly used to control printers, scanners, and multifunction devices to provide an attractive solution for OEMs who have been concerned about reducing BOM costs.

The newly integrated feature includes ARM’s Cortex™ M3 microcontroller, which can directly control printer and scanner motors to eliminate the need for an external motor control IC.

In addition, the Quattro 5300 supports the latest graphical user interface designs, including an integrated ARM Mali™ 400 MP GPU, LCD controller, and touch screen controller interface.

The integrated Silicon Labs V.34 hardware fax modem provides an internationally programmable wired telephone line interface, and the Quattro 5300 series also integrates a complete scanner analog front-end (AFE).

In addition, the integrated DRAM interface supports DDR2 and DDR3 memory to enable low-cost options depending on memory market trends, while the integrated DAC provides cost-effective sensor control.

The 14mm Advanced Quad Flat No-Lead (aQFN) package reduces mounting area and material costs compared to conventional BGA packages.

Excellent energy efficiency
The Quattro 5300's energy-saving low-power sleep mode reduces power consumption to less than 100 milliwatts. This is more than enough to meet the EU's stringent energy efficiency qualification requirements set to take effect in January 2013.

The Quattro 5300's Low Power Sleep mode disables unused function blocks and reduces the system clock frequency. It also switches the DRAM to self-refresh mode and operates the CPU only via internal memory for monitor USB, Ethernet, and operator panel interfaces.

Fast and easy software development
The ARM11™ CPU cores of the Quattro 5300 series, capable of speeds up to 525MHz, and the dual Quattro 4-datapath SIMD DSP cores will be a groundbreaking product for developers. In particular, the dual Quattro 4-datapath SIMD DSP cores efficiently support the Quattro 5300 series to achieve high speeds of over 50 ppm in inkjet printers, multifunction printers, and monochrome laser/LED printers, over 25 mm in color laser/LED printers and multifunction printers, and document scanners.

For high-end products, the CSR Quattro 4500 series can be used. The CSR Inferno™ modular firmware platform provides developers with a single firmware base for the entire range of Quattro processors. This allows developers to easily meet specific consumer needs and create cost-effective controllers for a diverse range of product families.

Quattro's programmable CPU, DSP, and microcontroller cores enable developers to directly execute their own functions, image processing algorithms, and mechanism control using standard tools for rapid software development and time-to-market.

Developers can choose between Embedded Linux or ThreadX® RTOS for the operating system, and the extensive CSR library of image processing algorithms optimized for the Quattro family makes it easy to create an improved image processing pipeline.

Wi-Fi connectivity
For Wi-Fi connectivity, the CSR UniFi® CSR6030™ and CS6031™ solution interfaces, which directly support the Quattro 5300 and CSR Synergy™ connectivity software, are integrated with Inferno.

Availability and Cost
The CSR Quattro 5300 series, currently being sampled, utilizes 40nm semiconductor process technology and is scheduled for release later this year. Depending on the model and configuration, the Quattro 5300 is available in both 14mm aQFN and 23mm BGA packages. For other information, including pricing, please contact CSR.