Kinetis MCUs for complex embedded applications

The Kinetis family is said to complement Freescale's 90nm Coldfire+ MCU line and is said to be a highly scalable portfolio of low-power, mixed-signal ARM Cortex-M4 processor-based MCUs.

Over the next 12 months, seven new Kinetis MCU families are expected to be introduced with more than 200 pin-, peripheral- and software-compatible devices.

Designers will be able to combine this with a selection of human-machine interface (HMI), connectivity, and safety and security peripherals as well as selecting from multiple performance and memory options.

Kinetis MCUs are built using Freescale's 90nm Thin Film Storage (TFS) technology with Flexmemory capability - configurable electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM).

The MCUs also share the same software enablement and ultra-low power flexibility as Coldfire+ MCUs, making it simple for customers to select the best solution for their end application.

Each MCU comes with a suite of enablement software including Freescale's MQX real-time operating system (RTOS) and bundled Eclipse-based Codewarrior 10.0 integrated development environment (IDE) with Professor Expert - providing a visual and automated framework to accelerate the development of complex embedded applications.

Kinetis MCUs are also supported by the ARM ecosystem including IAR Systems' Embedded Workbench and Keil's Microcontroller Development Kit IDEs.

This combination of Freescale and third-party enablement provides a pathway for quick design and reduced implementation headaches.

The Freescale Tower rapid prototyping system completes the offering by providing nearly unlimited quick prototyping capabilities.