November 13, 2012 Freescale emphasized its automotive credentials at the Electronica exhibition by launching a series of automotive industry related products covering microcontrollers, radar and pressure sensors. Read more

October 25, 2012 At its technology forum in Tokyo this week, Freescale Semiconductor introduced a new family of image cognition processors (ICPs) for the driver assistance market. The SCP2200 family features CogniVue’s APEX IP technology and is designed in particular for automotive smart camera applications. The family, along with the accompanying libraries, hardware and software development kits, gives automakers a comprehensive set of tools to design smart camera applications, helping them to bring their solutions to market more quickly. Read more

October 25, 2012 A certain disappointment is hard to overlook when chip manufacturers talk about the present and future state of the FlexRay automotive networking technology. However, FlexRay is far from being dead, assert chip vendors polled by EE Times Europe unanimously. Read more

October 17, 2012 At the VDI congress on automotive electronics in Baden-Baden (Germany), top engineers and strategists from the automotive value chain discussed current and future technology trends in this industry. Conference chairman Wolfgang Runge named the three most essential trends currently driving the development of next-gen vehicles. Read more

September 13, 2012 In a move intended to improve automotive safety systems, Freescale Semiconductor is licensing Image Cognition Processing (ICP) intellectual property (IP) from CogniVue Corporation that will be incorporated into new processors for advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS). Freescale will be the exclusive provider of this technology to the automotive market. Read more

August 27, 2012 Freescale Semiconductor has added an entry-level device family designed primarily for two-wheel and entry-level automotive instrument cluster market to its S12 MagniV mixed-signal microcontroller (MCU) portfolio. The new S12 MagniV S12ZVHY MCU family aims at helping developers to create a comprehensive instrument cluster solution with a single chip, significantly reducing time to market and the overall bill of materials. Read more

June 20, 2012 At its Technology Forum in San Antonio, chipmaker Freescale Semiconductor has introduced extensions of its Vybrid controller solutions portfolio which aim at automotive applications. The company rolls silicon-enabled software designed to bring connected radios, entry-level infotainment systems and reconfigurable instrument clusters to mainstream automobiles. Read more

June 20, 2012 With two new SafeAssure solutions – the Qorivva MPC574xP 32-bit microcontroller (MCU) and system basis chip (SBC) MC33906/7/8 families –Freescale help automotive systems meet all Automotive Safety Integrity Levels (ASIL) up to and including the most stringent one, ASIL D. Applications that can benefit include electric power steering, electronic stability control, vehicle dynamic and chassis control, safety domain control, adaptive cruise control and blind spot detection. Read more

June 18, 2012 Freescale Semiconductor has released what the company claims is the first intelligent, multi-purpose, dual-side eXtreme switch with powerful protection against the harsh 24 V environment found in trucks, buses and special engines.
Read more

March 21, 2012 Freescale Semiconductor has introduced adding a device family designed primarily for the mainstream automotive instrument cluster market to its S12 MagniV mixed-signal microcontroller (MCU) portfolio. The new S12 MagniV S12ZVH enables developers to create a comprehensive instrument cluster solution with a single chip, significantly reducing time to market and the overall bill of materials. Read more

March 19, 2012 According to market research company Semicast, Renesas Electronics was the leading supplier of semiconductors to the OE automotive sector in 2011, ahead of Infineon Technologies. Freescale Semiconductor, for many years the leading supplier of automotive semiconductors, dropped to fourth position behind STMicroelectronics, while NXP Semiconductor retained its position as fifth ranked supplier. Read more

March 1, 2012 Freescale Semiconductor has announced the most highly integrated automotive brushless motor (BLDC) control solution available today. The S12 MagniV 16-bit S12ZVM family of mixed-signal microcontrollers (MCUs) is designed to support the the transition from direct current (DC) to BLDC motors. By using this single-chip motor control solution, designers can shrink the size, reduce the audible noise and improve the power efficiency of their applications, Freescale claims. Read more

December 23, 2011 Linaro, a not-for-profit engineering organization that works with open-source software for the ARM processor architecture, has announced downloadable builds of v4.0 of the Android operating system on development boards from Samsung and ST-Ericsson. Read more

December 15, 2011 NOR Flash memory vendor Macronix International has announced a collaboration with Freescale Semiconductor: The latter plans to provide a cost-effective platform for high-resolution color graphics and analog functions for the automotive dashboard displays market, based on Freescale's Qorivva MPC5645S MCU. This platform will employ Macronix's latest serial Flash iteration. Read more

December 14, 2011 Communications chip vendor Broadcom Corporation has introduced a broad automotive Ethernet portfolio, engineered to meet the rigorous qualifications and demands of the automotive semiconductor market. Broadcom's BroadR-Reach automotive portfolio delivers high-performance bandwidth of 100Mbps and beyond while dramatically reducing connectivity costs up to 80 % and cabling weight as much as 30 %, the company claims. Read more

November 9, 2011 The trend towards the deployment of Ethernet in for in-vehicle networking (IVN) is gaining further momentum: After recent announcements from chip vendor Freescale and automotive supplier Continental, four technology companies launched the OPEN Special Interest Group aiming at establishing the technology in automotive applications. Read more

November 2, 2011 Freescale is offering a family of automotive acceleration sensors designed to expedite development of advanced airbag systems that help save lives and protect against injuries caused by vehicle collisions. Freescale's Xtrinsic MMA65xxKW family of accelerometers employs intelligent sensing technologies designed for front and side crash detection that can be easily and efficiently integrated into vehicle airbag systems. Read more

October 20, 2011 Freescale Semiconductor has licensed the new, ultra-efficient ARM Cortex-A7 MPCore processor in conjunction with the previously licensed Cortex-A15 processor. The company plans to leverage the energy efficiency and performance of the two ARM cores to develop future generations of its rapidly expanding portfolio of i.MX applications processors. Read more

October 14, 2011 Standard IT components and approaches increasingly enter automotive electronics. Now Ethernet is about to be established as the data bus standard for future car generations. Read more

October 11, 2011 In an environment where an increasing amount of data needs to be processed, automotive data bus systems such as FlexRay and even MOST are hitting their limits. High-speed point-to-point connections are not flexible enough for many applications. Despite its non-deterministic nature, Ethernet is becoming the technology of choice for some automotive applications. Read more

October 5, 2011 The formal opening of its newly established Research and Development Centre of Excellence (CoE) in East Kilbride, Scotland sees more than 170 highly skilled employees primarily involved in MCU development for the automotive market, while a significant part of the team is also expected to focus on the networking and industrial markets. Read more

September 15, 2011 Chipmaker Freescale has announced a new product family of LIN PHY devices. With low noise, high electromagnetic immunity and best-of-class EMI and ESD behavior, the devices help to improve network-oriented communication in automotive body applications. Read more

August 30, 2011 Using its Tower development system, Freescale has introduced a MEMS development package that targets smaller OEMs targeting the automotive market, particularly in the emerging BRIC regions of China and India, where it believes there is greater opportunity for new companies to penetrate the fiercely competitive market. Read more

August 24, 2011 Automotive supplier Bosch group and chipmaker Freescale Semiconductor announced that they have combined their positions in automotive electronics and systems expertise to create an automotive airbag reference platform for the growing automotive safety segment in emerging markets such as India and China. Read more

June 24, 2011 With the S12VR64, Freescale Semiconductor has introduced the first single-chip implementation within its S12 MagniV mixed-signal microcontroller product line. Designed for applications in the automotive body such as driving DC motors in power windows and sunroofs, the chip supports LIN bus connectivity. Read more

June 13, 2011 Freescale Semiconductor has expanded its portfolio of Qorivva 32-bit microcontrollers (MCUs) built on Power Architecture technology to power the next wave of automotive instrument cluster applications. Read more

June 13, 2011 In the run-up to its annual Technology Forum event, Freescale Semiconductor has announced a new automotive microcontroller family. Featuring Ethernet connectivity and video compression, the MPC5604E is intended to make parking assistant systems more affordable. Read more

June 2, 2011 Shorter development cycles and faster time to market are crucial for Freescale Semiconductor's automotive electronics customers, particularly in emerging markets. With this in mind, Freescale announced a new line of development kits, called StarterTRAK, for its Qorivva 32-bit microcontrollers. Three StarterTRAK kits are now available for order. Read more

May 18, 2011 Freescale has added a new product to its existing range of alternator controller circuits. Through its LIN bus interface, the new TC80310 enables designers to implement innovative control functions. Read more

April 13, 2011 Freescale Semiconductor has entered into a strategic alliance with Fuji Electric Co., Ltd. to collaborate on insulated-gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) technology and products for hybrid electric and electric vehicles (HEV and EV). With the move, Freescale eliminates a major shortcoming in its product portfolio. Read more

March 16, 2011 Chery Automobile Co. Ltd.—the largest passenger car maker in China—said Tuesday (March 15) that it is going 32-bit with its entire line of vehicles in order to improve their fuel efficiency, emissions and safety. Chery will incorporate Freescale Semiconductor Inc.'s Qorivva 32-bit MPC563x MCUs in its future vehicles. Read more

March 14, 2011 A new range of 32-bit MCU family has been designed to make advanced driver assistance systems more affordable for a broad range of vehicles. It could help promote safety features, such as blind-spot detection, lane-departure warning systems, side view assistance and adaptive headlights. These and similar advanced automotive safety systems are part of the rapidly growing market known as advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS). Read more

March 14, 2011 In the booming global market for automotive semiconductors, the cards have been shuffled anew. The pole position is now occupied by Renesas; the long-standing leader Freescale has dramatically fallen behind. Read more

March 7, 2011 A range of microcontrollers with integrated cryptography services engine (CSE) from Freescale are aimed at lowering the security risk for data streamed through body electronics. The MPC564xB/C are the company's first devices to offer hardware-based CSE, previously implemented in software. Read more

February 28, 2011 The Distributed System Interface (DSI) Consortium has finalized and released the DSI3 version technical specifications. DSI describes a protocol for the interconnection of multiple sensors and actuators to a control unit. Main target of the development is airbag controllers and other safety-related features. Read more

January 10, 2011 With its new i.MX 6 application processor family, Freescale aims at automotive infotainment systems, driver assistant systems and other embedded applications requiring high number crunching capacity. The SoCs come with one, two or four ARM Cortex A9 processor cores. Read more

November 11, 2010 Freescale Semiconductor is expanding its Xtrinsic line of sensing solutions for automotive active safety applications with the addition of the new MMA6900Q and MMA6901Q accelerometers. Read more

October 25, 2010 As consumers increasingly embrace downloadable applications that run on popular mobile products such as tablets and smartphones, automakers are looking to differentiate new car models with high performance driver information systems (DIS) that enable similar use cases for customizable in-dash applications and fully reconfigurable instrument clusters. To meet this demand, Freescale Semiconductor has expanded its i.MX53 processor family with automotive versions designed to enable next-generation automotive multimedia applications. Read more

September 14, 2010 Freescale Semiconductor has announced the MPC564xA microcontroller; the newest addition to its embedded 32-bit MCU portfolio. Built on its Power Architecture technology, it is designed to withstand the harsh environments found in automotive applications, to deliver the performance and precision needed for engine management and transmission control. Read more

August 26, 2010 QNX Software Systems has announced that its CAR Application Platform now supports Freescale Semiconductor's i.MX processors which are used widely in automotive environments. Read more

August 16, 2010 PLS Programmierbare Logik & Systeme is now offering its Universal Debug Engine (UDE) 2.7 for the 32-bit Power Architecture MCUs of the MPC5668x series from Freescale. Read more

June 18, 2010 IAR Systems announced the availability of an integrated development kit for the Freescale i.MX25 family of low power ARM9-based microprocessors. This IAR KickStart kit contains an i.MX25-SK evaluation board, software development tools together with a hardware debug probe. The evaluation board, using a i.MX257 device, features 32 Mbyte of SDRAM, 1 Gbyte of Flash memory and a 320x240 colour TFT LCD display. Read more

May 13, 2010 Exposure to Chinese automobile makers helped Dutch chip vendor NXP BV (Eindhoven, The Netherlands) take the top position in the global automotive infotainment semiconductor market in an economically difficult 2009, according to market research company iSuppli Corp. (El Segundo, Calif.). Read more

May 13, 2010 US-based e-car manufacturer Aptera will use TTTech Automotive's TTC 90 High Safety Controller in its ambitious Aptera 2e electric vehicle. Read more

May 5, 2010 After a long pursuit, Infineon has displaced Freescale from the pole position in the automotive chip ranking. According to market research company Strategy Analytics, Infineon in 2009 for the first time sold more semiconductors into the automotive market than archrival Freescale. Read more