Freescale Also Announces the i.MX537 and i.MX538 Multimedia Processors

Freescale may have revealed its intentions as far as the tablet market goes, but it also has the i.MX537 and i.MX538 processors, intended for industrial applications and consumer-oriented devices, respectively.

Since the first two months of the first quarter of 2011 have come and passed, Freescale figured it was time to present its newest, energy-efficient applications processors.

The i.MX537 and i.MX538 are based on their maker's latest implementation of the ARM Cortex-A8 core and are aimed at smartphones, tablets, patient monitoring, automotive infotainment and electronics with human-machine interfaces, among other things.

The former of the two has an 800 MHz core and reduced PCB and manufacturing costs, plus a wide operational temperature range (-40 degrees C to +85 degrees C). It is intended for module non-consumer uses.

Meanwhile, the i.MX538 has a package-on–package (PoP) housing (12 mm x 12 mm), a 1 GHz ARM Cortex-A8 core and LPDDR2 support, as well as MMC/SD flash memory (optional).

“Freescale hit the ball out of the park with the i.MX53. Added integration of LVDS, serial ATA and a USB PHY save board real estate and cost for industrial and mobile applications,” said Pejman Kalkhoran, chief financial officer of Boundary Devices.

The application processors should already be shipping to select customers, ins elect quantities, and will be generally sampled starting June, 2011.

“The Freescale i.MX53x takes the high-performing i.MX51 family to the next level. NovTech has had successful designs with the i.MX51x and now with the introduction of the i.MX53x, NovTech can enhance the solutions offered with a larger amount of DDR supported, higher display resolution, stronger video engine, and additional on-board peripherals such as SATA and USB HOST (built-in PHY) to name some,” said Yossi Har-Nov, principal at NovTech.

“NovTech is introducing a new member of the NOVPEK (Platform Evaluation Kit) family, the NOVPEK_i.MX53, which provides systems architects, board designers and test/debug engineers with a great tool to expedite and enhance their work.”