Freescale Keeps Moving Forward as NXP Acquisition Draws Nearer

by Jeffrey Burt

Freescale President and CEO Gregg Lowe addresses the crowd at the Freescale Technology Forum (FTF). He will step aside after NXP completes the acquisition of his company.

Steve Wozniak was a keynote speaker at the show, looking to—among other things—allay fears that computers will end up ruling the human race.

The Internet of things (IoT) was a big focus at FTF, and—like other tech vendors have done—Freescale used a drone as one way to show off its IoT chops.

Freescale’s new i.MX6 single chip module (SCM), which includes two ARM processor cores, also packs a wide array of other components—from memory boards and power management to radio frequency parts and video acceleration—into its tiny piece of silicon.

The new series of application processors—which incorporate both the ARM Cortex-A7 and Cortex-M4 cores—are three times more power efficient than their predecessors, which makes them fit well with IoT and wearable devices.

Officials talked about the upcoming wireless and multiprotocol microcontroller (MCU) for Freescale’s Kinetis lineup for the IoT. The Kinetis KW40Z family includes an integrated 2.4GHz multiprotocol radio and supports Bluetooth Smart, Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) and IEEE 802.15.4 applications.

Pointing out that new cars can incorporate more than 100 million lines of code, Freescale officials unveiled the ARM-based S32K MCU product line to reduce the complexity that comes with that much software.

The company is working with Arrow Electronics and others on the Sam Project car to create technology that will enable autos to be driven by head movements. Attendees could give the technology a try in this simulator.

There were countless IoT devices on display at the FTF. Freescale showed off a connected, smart proof-of-concept oven that uses radio frequency (RF) technology to cook food quickly but with better quality than a microwave.

Freescale officials said they will use ARM’s low-power, 64-bit Cortex-A72 architecture in upcoming versions of its QorIQ LS2 networking processors by the end of the year, and also are planning to bring 16-nanometer FinFET technology to the chips, with initial sampling scheduled for mid-2016.

Akamai officials said the company is working with Freescale and Rubicon Labs to create security technologies—including what they call “zero-knowledge keys”—that will remove the human factor from the security equation.

Freescale offered a huge tech lab that gave developers the chance to work with the company’s technology.

Developers in the tech lab were able to work hands-on with a lot of the products.