Bridge building
Freescale has introduced a product range which it believes will provide a ‘connection point’ between its 8 and 32bit microcontrollers. The Flexis family will feature a range of parts based on the company’s S08 and ColdFire V1 cores, each offering pin compatibility and the ability to reuse software and peripherals without modification.
Bruno Baylac, director of consumer and industrial marketing for Freescale’s Transportation and Standard Products Group, pictured, said: “Our goal is to bridge between the 8 and 32bit markets with high performance, cost effective and low power devices. We want to give customers the freedom to migrate to either a higher performance part or to a more cost efficient device whilst retaining their existing investment in software.”
Flexis is currently sampling with alpha customers, but Baylac expects wide availability by the end of the year. “We’ll then expand the range with new devices every three to four months,” he claimed.
First in the range are the S08 based MC9S08QE and the V1 based MCF51QE128. The devices, which share the same peripheral set, come in a choice of 64 or 80pin lqfps.
