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Jim Trudeau
Rob, Please contact me directly at jim.trudeau@freescale.com with specific ...
docdivakar
Dylan, it is all in the nomenclature / term used to describe the part. Take ...
Armed with new products, Freescale sees growth ahead
Dylan McGrath
6/25/2012 7:53 PM EDT
Flurry of new product announcements
Predictably, Freescale used the occasion of FTF to unleash a flurry of product announcements, including the Xtrinsic 6-axis sensor, an addition to its QorIQ Qonverge base station IC line, two new QorIQ AMP series processors, the extension of its Vybrid controller portfolio into the automotive market and three new RF power amplifiers. Most significantly, however, the company also announced a set of SafeAssure solutions designed to help automakers comply with the International Standards Organization 26262 standard, said it is sampling the first of its Kinetis L series microntrollers built on the ARM Cortex-MO+ processor and introduced a core-agnostic architecture that will form the foundation of its third-generation QorIQ portfolio.
Tom Deitrich, general manager of Freescale's Networking and Multimedia Solutions group, described the Layerscape architecture as "software aware" and capable of utilizing cores of different origins, including ARM and Power Architectures and conceivably others. Deitrich painted the architecture as part of a shifting emphasis within the semiconductor industry away from process technology toward the importance of architecture.
"It used to be all about process technology and number of transistors," Deitrich said. "Where the world is going is much more about the architecture and how you put things together."
But the biggest headlines from FTF were arguably around the Kinetis L microcontroller series, the first MCU to sample that feature the ultra-low-power Cortex-M0+ processor. The 32-bit Kinetis L MCUs offer one-third the energy consumption of 8-bit processors while delivering twice the performance of 16-bit processors, according to the company.
During the opening day FTF keynote, Freescale did a live demo showing that the Kinetis L series MCUs used less power than low-power competitors from Renesas Electronics Corp. Microchip Technology Inc. and Texas Instruments Inc. The that the Freescale parts proved the stingiest with energy was not that surprising, given the venue, but he margin of victory did raise a few eyebrows. (See video below, courtesy of EDN).
Will Strauss, principal analyst at Forward Concepts Inc., said competitors are nervous about the performance and momentum of Kinetis MCUs. "The Kintetis product lines have really become the team to beat in the microcontroller world," Strauss said.
Predictably, Freescale used the occasion of FTF to unleash a flurry of product announcements, including the Xtrinsic 6-axis sensor, an addition to its QorIQ Qonverge base station IC line, two new QorIQ AMP series processors, the extension of its Vybrid controller portfolio into the automotive market and three new RF power amplifiers. Most significantly, however, the company also announced a set of SafeAssure solutions designed to help automakers comply with the International Standards Organization 26262 standard, said it is sampling the first of its Kinetis L series microntrollers built on the ARM Cortex-MO+ processor and introduced a core-agnostic architecture that will form the foundation of its third-generation QorIQ portfolio.
Tom Deitrich, general manager of Freescale's Networking and Multimedia Solutions group, described the Layerscape architecture as "software aware" and capable of utilizing cores of different origins, including ARM and Power Architectures and conceivably others. Deitrich painted the architecture as part of a shifting emphasis within the semiconductor industry away from process technology toward the importance of architecture.
"It used to be all about process technology and number of transistors," Deitrich said. "Where the world is going is much more about the architecture and how you put things together."
But the biggest headlines from FTF were arguably around the Kinetis L microcontroller series, the first MCU to sample that feature the ultra-low-power Cortex-M0+ processor. The 32-bit Kinetis L MCUs offer one-third the energy consumption of 8-bit processors while delivering twice the performance of 16-bit processors, according to the company.
During the opening day FTF keynote, Freescale did a live demo showing that the Kinetis L series MCUs used less power than low-power competitors from Renesas Electronics Corp. Microchip Technology Inc. and Texas Instruments Inc. The that the Freescale parts proved the stingiest with energy was not that surprising, given the venue, but he margin of victory did raise a few eyebrows. (See video below, courtesy of EDN).
Will Strauss, principal analyst at Forward Concepts Inc., said competitors are nervous about the performance and momentum of Kinetis MCUs. "The Kintetis product lines have really become the team to beat in the microcontroller world," Strauss said.
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joshxdr
6/25/2012 9:40 PM EDT
I am no marketing expert, but an unreadable brand name like "QorIQ Qonverge" seems a bit lame.
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dylan.mcgrath
6/25/2012 10:04 PM EDT
I admit I had the same thought. Henri Richard made the point that what Freescale/ Motorola used to have were part numbers, rather than product names. Part numbers don't really stick in the mind, unless you are using them or otherwise dealing with them all the time. But, like you, I agree that QorIQ Qonverge (pronounced, I only recently learned, "Core IQ Converge" seems kind of clunky. At the very least the spelling is not something you are going to remember initially. After a while I suspect that we will all get used to the names and it will seem no big deal. But for now, reading that name and then trying to say it... I suspect it's not something that many people will understand intuitively.
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docdivakar
6/30/2012 9:21 PM EDT
Dylan, it is all in the nomenclature / term used to describe the part. Take Broadcom for example, their 10Gig products like BCM87xxxxx are actually quite popular with the end users. If Freescale feels their names are a hit with the end users, I see no problem here!
MP Divakar
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ChipBuilder
6/25/2012 10:20 PM EDT
That's because all of the new management does know the old names. PowerPC, PowerQuicc, ColdFire, StarCore, and yes its a part number, but who doesn't know 68000? I'm sure you'll find these at the core of these 'new' products. I think its cheeper to make new powerpoints than new cores, busses, and software infrastructure.
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daleste
6/25/2012 11:19 PM EDT
I agree with the names. Too clunky. We'll see how well Gregg does with gaining market share with these names.
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kinnar
6/26/2012 6:23 AM EDT
So Freescale is also in the strong competition for the general purpose micro-controllers with PIC, TI and Intel. General purpose micro-controllers series are the most used electronic components in the smaller electronic products and projects. Efficient controllers are the most wanted things and that's where the FC's focus is.
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rob18767
6/26/2012 10:31 AM EDT
As a disgruntled Freescale user they could actually spend some time improving their awful software development tools before saying they will compete with anyone.
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Jim Trudeau
7/2/2012 8:09 PM EDT
Rob, Please contact me directly at jim.trudeau@freescale.com with specific problems or complaints. I am directly involved in projects to make our tools easier to use. But "tools" is a broad term, so I'm not sure what tool or part of a tool you're talking about, what version, etc. Maybe I can help. Maybe it's something we've already fixed. If nothing else, I will certainly listen, and perhaps I can do something about it. I genuinely consider feedback a gift, if you're willing to give it.
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GREAT-Terry
6/26/2012 11:31 AM EDT
Maybe the name is a bit difficult to pronounce, especially to non-English speaker, I think the most important thing is to have distinct features on each series so that people can say "ahhah" and really feel good to use them. I hope Freescale can go on the right track to provide easy to use while good performance processor/controller seires in those target markets.
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