Category: Freescale

Pixel Qi in the Genesi ARM Powered Laptop

Posted by – January 7, 2011

This is the ultimate combination for the future of laptops, ARM Power and Pixel Qi display for 40-50 hours battery runtime. This Genesi laptop uses the Freescale i.MX51 processor.

Freescale i.MX51 Powered Tablets at CES 2011

Posted by – January 7, 2011

Robert Thompson, Director of Smart Mobile Devices at Freescale, gives us a 14 minute presentation of the dozens of Freescale Powered Android tablet form factors and devices that are on the market or that are going to be on the market soon.

Freescale Powered MyFord Touch

Posted by – January 7, 2011

Freescale is powering the Ford Sync system called MyFord Touch, there is an i.MX51 processor in there and Windows CE based user interfaces and features providing in-car system for the Ford cars. This type of ARM Powered solution for the car, voice activated, is becoming a large part of what allows car makers to differentiate their cars in the market.

Freescale i.MX 6 is dual-core and quad-core ARM Cortex-A9 processor

Posted by – January 4, 2011
Category: Freescale

Here´s to more fun from Freescale, they just unveiled their ARM Cortex-A9 processor platform the i.MX6 series, available in dual-core and quad-core ARM Cortex-A9 cores running at up to 1.2 GHz each, five times the performance of Freescale’s current generation of processors that are used in devices, such as the Amazon Kindle, Ford SYNC, HP Photosmart eStation, etc. Up to 200 million triangles per second 3D performance (like a PS3 in the pocket..).

Freescale is positioning these low power chips for both consumer and automotive applications. Although a primary target is tablets where Freescale has seen significant interest from APAC vendors in using its flexible, low-power embedded solutions to meet the demand in the growing white box tablet market. Freescale processors now power 11 Android-based tablets on the market (but 23 tablets powered by Freescale will be shown at CES) in addition to supplying the processors for three out of the four most popular eReaders sold worldwide.

The product series is comprised of the single-core i.MX 6Solo, dual-core i.MX 6Dual and quad-core i.MX 6Quad processors. Key technical features of the series include:
· Industry-leading four-core design
o Up to four ARM® Cortex™-A9 cores running at up to 1.2 GHz per core
o Up to 1 MB system level 2 cache
o ARMv7, Neon, VFPv3 and Trustzone support
· Multistream-capable HD video engine delivering 1080p60 decode, 1080p30 encode and 3D video playback in HD
· Exceptional 3D graphics performance with quad shaders for up to 200 MTPS
· Separate 2D and vertex acceleration engines for uncompromised user interface experiences
· Stereoscopic image sensor support for 3D imaging
· Interconnect: HDMI v1.4 w/ integrated PHY, SD3.0, multiple USB 2.0 ports w/ integrated PHY, Gb Ethernet w/ integrated PHY, SATA-II w/ integrated PHY, PCI-e w/ integrated PHY, MIPI CSI, MIPI DSI, MIPI HSI, and FlexCAN for automotive applications
· Support for the VP8 codec
· Support for one of the broadest ranges of major operating system platforms in the industry
· Optional integration of an ePaper display controller for eReader and similar applications

Look forward to my full video coverage of i.MX6 at CES in the coming days.

Source:

iWave launches iW-i.MX51 SOM

Posted by – December 22, 2010

Bangalore based embedded design house iWave Systems Technologies has recently released High end, low cost, Low power SOM (70mm x 70mm) based on Freescale’s i.MX51 (Cortex-A8 ) Multimedia application processor. This Platform runs Win CE 6.0 R3, Android2.1 and Linux 2.6.28 Operating Systems.

This integrated, high performance, Low power module can be used for a wide range of applications in Industrial, Medical, Security/surveillance, Digital Signage and Automotive. The key features of this module are i.MX51/800MHz processor, on board 128MB/512MB RAM, 128MB/2GB NAND Flash, Micro SD with Edge and Expansion connectors for supporting Dual LCD/Camera, Multiple USB/SD/SDIO, TV, SPI, I2C etc interfaces. Any product development can be developed in about 10 weeks time.

Features/Specification:
1. i.MX51 Processor, PMIC, 512MB DDR2, 2GB Nand Flash, MicroSD,
2. 230 pin edge connector: Ethernet MII interface, Two MMC4.0/SD Mem 2.0/SDIO1.2, TwoI2C Interfaces, Two USB2.0 Host, Two UART Interfaces, SPI interface, SSI (Audio) Interface, CSI Interface-1, Display Interface-1, One Wire interface, TV-OUT, GPIOs, Power,
3. Expansion Connectors: NAND Flash (Expansion), Processor EIM Bus (16 bit multiplexed bus), 4×4 Keypad interface, CSI interface-2, Display Interface-2.

Contact: mktg@iwavesystems.com
More info: iwavesystems.com

netbooknews.com: Kinpad i600 7″ Android Tablet

Posted by – December 19, 2010

Here’s a Freescale 800MHz 7″ Tablet with AMD z430 graphics. AMD z430 may be the same graphics that Qualcomm Snapdragon uses called Adreno 200, that is for example in the Nexus One and HTC EVO 4G. This 7″ Kinpad i600 is being sold at $399.

This video was released at: netbooknews.com

New smart refrigerator based on ARM

Posted by – November 26, 2010
Category: Other, Freescale

The brazilian subsidiary of Electrolux, together with ProFUSION Embedded Systems, have developed a new smart refrigerator called Infinity I-Kitchen that runs on a Freescale i.MX25 processor and was developed using Linux and the Enlightenment Foundation Libraries.

Here are features that could be provided in these intelligent fridges:
1. One-click wirelessly add missing ingredients to your Android device’s shopping list. Could also automatically place order for refill or for new ingredients with remote groceries delivery service.
2. It should somehow know what you have in the fridge. Preferably RFID would be used, but since that is not yet available. Somehow it should know. Maybe a built-in camera could figure from normal bar codes scanning, or manual input can be simplified.
3. Generate suggested recipes based on ingredients available, based on perrumption dates, based on calculating a healthy varied diet for each member of the house hold.

More info here, with links to screenshots and a virtual reality demo.

QNX car info cluster software solutions

Posted by – November 17, 2010

Here demonstrated in a nice Corvette, you can do a bunch of interactive things with these new ARM Cortex-A8 Freescale i.MX51 powered digital information clusters and infotainment systems that are coming in different configurations to more and more cars soon.

Freescale Kinetis Tower System now sampling

Posted by – November 11, 2010

The Freescale Tower systems are development kits providing for many of Freescale’s sensors and processing features in a cube. The new Freescale Kinetis ARM Cortex-M4 processor and this Kinetis Tower System just started sampling now.

Review: Sony Reader PRS-650 Touch Edition

Posted by – October 18, 2010

It has a nice screen, I show it, and I give you my opinions on this e-reader. Sony is bringing a really nice E-ink Pearl based e-reader with a fantastic very sensitive infrared based touch screen. Though I wish it had WiFi and Android software for Chrome-to-Ereader functionality and Sharing and Synchronizing of Annotations and Reading to make Annotations and Reading more useful. It’s cool that Sony promote the “get unlimited ebooks for free from your digital library” concept. With WiFi, though, the integration with unlimited amounts of ebook repositories would be more seamless and probably more user friendly. If all you are looking for is an offline e-reader, with the latest e-ink screen technology, with touch-screen for page turns, dictionary/translator and for annotations and UIs, then this could be a great choice for you.

Also see my Grandmother reviewing this device in my video released last week and my 11-minute video interview with a Sony specialist unveiling it and discussing technical details about it at IFA.

Exclusive: Sony PRS-650 Grandmother Review

Posted by – October 8, 2010

Watch my grandmother use this new touch screen Sony e-reader. It’s a product that is suitable for people like her, who like to read lots, who may enjoy having access to all the worlds books electronically on this thin and light device. In this review, after having barely used the device before, she tries to navigate through the menus, open some PDF files, make fonts larger (to not need glasses) and she even does a drawing.

Also see my 11-minute video interview with a Sony specialist unveiling it and discussing technical details about it at IFA.

Sony’s new infrared based touch screen technology is quite awesome, great for UI navigations and for making annotations, provides touch on e-ink without taking away any of the Pearl e-ink’s screens visibility. Too bad though that this PRS-650 doesn’t come with at least WiFi nor with a 3G option, would have made the touch screen more useful if it could interact with web apps and web contents. I want Chrome-to-phone like Chrome-to-eink functionality where a one click in the web browser on my Laptop or Android device, should beam that article over to my Connected e-reader’s reading queue. And then I want annotations to become more useful and collaborative. 10 people working on the same text should be able to wirelessly share annotations in real-time. When I annotate a text, it should automatically be attached as comments to any site using Sidewiki or some other such web annotation standards to interoperate with websites existing commenting systems (post scribbled annotations as comments!). A bluetooth or USB keyboard and a built-in kickstand should provide a setup for full speed text entry.

laptopmag.com: HP’s $399 Android Tablet includes a printer

Posted by – September 20, 2010

HP is releasing this Freescale i.MX51 Powered $399 Android 2.2 Tablet which includes a “full function” color printer, with scanner and WiFi internet connection. The Android OS has been customized by HP to include only apps for printing stuff, the idea being that you can carry around this Android tablet and launch a bunch of prints wirelessly and dock it to your printer for charging. This may be the first Yahoo customized Android device, it doesn’t include Google apps/email/maps/marketplace but uses exclusively Yahoo apps and widgets.

Source: http://blog.laptopmag.com/hands-on-with-hps-photosmart-estation-printer-and-its-detachable-android-tablet-video

Acer LumiRead at IFA 2010

Posted by – September 6, 2010

Acer is releasing this new 6″ e-ink e-reader, without a touch screen, it’s not Pearl type e-ink display, comes with 3G and WiFi options and supports online book stores like the German libri.de book store.

Onyx Boox X60

Posted by – September 6, 2010

Onyx International has improved their hardware design to provide a drop proof protection for the glass wacom enabled 6″ e-ink screen.

UMEC Freescale i.MX51 based Android Tablets

Posted by – September 4, 2010

Universal Microelectronics Co. Ltd. is making this range of Android Tablets based on the Freescale i.MX51 ARM Cortex A8 processor, with capacitive touch sensors for the Android hardware buttons, volume, channels and power. See how far they have come since my previous video of what they were showing at IFA last year: http://138.2.152.197/2009/09/05/720p-android-on-a-video-phone-by-universal-microelectronics-co-ltd/

Mastone makes 7″ 4:3 Android Freescale powered tablets

Posted by – September 3, 2010

Mastone is presenting their finalized 7″ 4:3 aspect ratio Android tablet, powered by the Freescale i.MX51, with 3G sim card support.

Philips GoGear Connect Android Media Player

Posted by – September 2, 2010

Philips is launching this new Android based media player. It is based on the Freescale i.MX51 ARM Cortex A8 based processor and officially comes with support for the Google Marketplace and is going to be sold for 249€.

ARM CEO Warren East keynote at Freescale Kinetis Cortex-M4 launch

Posted by – July 13, 2010
Category: Other, Freescale, FTF

Freescale is one of the manufacturers partnering with ARM on making the new Cortex-M4 type of processors, Freescale calls them the Kinetis Cortex-M4 Microcontrollers. Cortex-M4 may help to enable to connect all things to the internet, such as the oven, the fridge, motors, medical and industrial applications. It’s something about adding DSP and programmable features into cheap Microcontrollers that may be put into all devices to help connect them to the Internet for cheap. Do you have some good ideas of what Cortex-M4 will be used for in the market? Write in the comments.

Canonical explains the status of Ubuntu on ARM Powered Laptops

Posted by – July 5, 2010

In this video, Jerone Young, Partner Engineer at Canonical explains the status of software optimizations and development to make ARM Powered Laptops and Desktops a reality. He tells about some of the fascinating challenges where Canonical is working together with the their partners at the Linaro group of companies (ARM, Freescale, IBM, Samsung, ST Ericsson, Texas Instruments…) to realize a full desktop experience on ARM Powered devices, including full and fast web browsing and full access to most of the most useful Ubuntu applications.

It’s about hardware acceleration, about standardization of boot process and other aspects of the ARM platforms, this is about focusing development efforts to solve the most important challenges and provide thus open source and free software tools to be used by all ARM Powered Linux based products. With faster memory bus speeds coming up in the next generation of Desktop-centric ARM Processors, such as support for DDR3 RAM speeds, the implementation of multiple cores as in upcoming ARM Cortex A9 processors, the standardization of how to use graphics and video hardware acceleration to speed up user interfaces, applications and features. Those are the challenges that Canonical and its partners are working very hard on and plan to implement in actual products that can start to be sold to the mass market during these coming months.

As you have been able to see in hundreds of videos here on ARMdevices.net, many, many prototypes of ARM Powered laptops are being shown at trade shows. Huge laptop makers like HP, Toshiba, Dell, Lenovo, Quanta, Compal, Inventec, Pegatron, all of those and many more have shown or have announced ARM Powered laptop projects. Yet to actually launch these to a very large market, the ARM Partners are first collaboratively making sure that those devices provide a user experience that is fast enough for most consumers.

This story as discussed on Slashdot: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/10/07/06/1256252/Surveying-the-Challenges-of-Linux-On-Cortex-A9-Based-Laptops

Technology Editor at EETimes offers impressions from the Freescale Technology Forum

Posted by – June 27, 2010

R.Colin Johnson, Technology Editor at http://eetimes.com offers his impressions on the Freescale Technology Forum. The launch of the new Freescale Xtrinsic sensors, Cortex M4 and more. Check more videos he filmed of the first day keynotes at FTF at his blog: http://nextgenlog.tv