Freescale
Semiconductor Inc. has unleashed the i.MX 6 series, the company\'s
family of high-performance applications processors that offer multimedia
capabilities such as triple play graphics architecture and UI acceleration. The series integrates Chips&Media\'s hardware video acceleration technology, the CODA960.
The
i.MX 6 series scales from one to four CPU cores to deliver optimal
headroom for many of today\'s consumer electronics applications. The
applications processors, which are built on ARM Cortex-A9 cores with
integrated IP, offer outstanding performance and scalability for
manufacturers targeting the tablet, e-reader, automotive infotainment
and other smart mobile device spaces, the company said.
The series
consists of the single-core i.MX 6Solo, dual-core i.MX 6Dual and
quad-core i.MX 6Quad processors. They feature dual-stream 1080p H.264
video processing for 3D class video decoding and Freescale\'s triple play
graphics architecture consisting of console-style 3D graphics with
200MT/s. Added capabilities include separate 2D BLT engine for UI
acceleration and separate 2D OpenVG engine for vector-based graphics.
The
i.MX 6 series also offers display support for up to two (dual QXGA,
2048x1536) or four (dual WUXGA, 1920x1200 + dual HD1080) simultaneous
displays and three physically separate graphic engines to best optimize
gaming, UI and control-related graphics. Other technical specifications
of the CPUs include DDR3/LP-DDR2, BGA /POP packaging, USB/SD/MIPI, CAN
controller/MLB150 bus, LVDS and 64bit memory bus.
Common SoC IP
building blocks enable series-wide software and development tool
compatibility. Freescale also said that the i.MX 6 series\' integrated
power management capabilities, broad range of integrated I/Os and pin
compatibility within package families reduce overall product complexity
and development costs. Support for PC supply chain peripherals includes
DDR3, 0.8mm pitch packaging, PCIe, SATA and GbE, and operating system
support offered for Google Android, QNX, Linux and Microsoft.
