Freescale Launches Seminar Series For Embedded Developers

Austin, TX - Freescale Semiconductor has launched a global seminar series designed to provide embedded developers with comprehensive, hands-on training in using Freescale's Flexis QE128 devices, the industry's first compatible 8- and 32-bit microcontrollers (MCUs). Registration is now open for the Flexis seminar series, which will be held now through December in more than 90 locations worldwide.

The one-day seminars are designed to teach engineers how to migrate between the 8-bit MC9S08QE128 8-bit MCU based on the S08 core and the MCF51QE128 32-bit MCU, the first device based on the V1 ColdFire core. The Flexis QE128 MCUs offer industry-leading ultra-low-power features to help minimize operating costs and extend battery life.

The MC9S08QE128 and MCF51QE128 can run off of an external 32-kilohertz oscillator that consumes less than 1 micro-amps of current. The Flexis QE devices' internal voltage regulator helps enable fast wake up from stop modes with a typical wake-up time of 6µs. The stop modes support extremely low power, offering 370 nA of current in the lowest power stop mode. Clock gating can be used to disable clocks to unused modules, further reducing run-mode power consumption by up to 33 percent.

These ultra-low-power characteristics enable embedded developers to reap the compatibility benefits of the Flexis QE128 family while remaining in a very low power envelope, even when upgrading to 32-bit performance. This capability is critical for next-generation, battery-powered applications. The Flexis devices address a wide range of consumer and industrial applications, including health care instrumentation and monitoring, factory automation, point-of-sale equipment, fire and security systems, HVAC and building control, metering and consumer appliances.

"In-depth training and comprehensive enablement tools are essential to the market success of any next-generation microcontroller platform," said Jeff Bock, global product marketing manager for Freescale's Microcontroller Division. "We've designed the Flexis seminar series to provide our customers with the hands-on training they need to develop scalable, energy-efficient applications and stay within their power budgets."

The Flexis seminar series are designed to help participants:

Discover how to migrate embedded designs between 8-bit and 32-bit Flexis MCUs

Develop with Freescale's ultra-low-power Flexis devices without sacrificing performance

Learn how to reduce the cost and complexity of embedded designs based on scalable, compatible hardware and software platforms across bit boundaries

Registration information

Freescale is sponsoring 45 Flexis seminars across the United States and Canada; 13 seminars in Europe; 22 in Asia; and 13 in Latin America.

The seminar registration fee is $99 (USD). Attendees will receive 20 percent off the price of CodeWarrior for Microcontrollers v6.0 tools, as well as a complimentary DEMOQE128 demonstration board.

For more information and to register online, visit www.freescale.com/files/pr/flexis.html.

About the Controller Continuum

From the ultra-low-end RS08 to the highest-performance ColdFire V4 devices, the Controller Continuum roadmap provides compatibility for an easy migration path up or down the performance spectrum. This compatibility means developers can move from one device to the next compatible device, from the low end to the high end of the continuum.

Developers can choose to enter the Controller Continuum at the ultra-low-end RS08 MCU family, the more sophisticated S08 MCU devices or the top-of-the-line ColdFire embedded controllers. Each step has family members that share packaging, peripherals or pin-outs with the next step up or down the Controller Continuum. The 8- to 32-bit compatibility connection point at the center of the Controller Continuum is Freescale's Flexis series of MCUs.

SOURCE: Freescale Semiconductor