Freescale KINETIS expert online next monday

Hi Gordon - great to see that Freescale is taking Element14 seriouesly

I have a heap of questions for you:

1) How fast will the K10 CPU run out of Flash?

2) When will samples of the K10 be available?  And production?

3) Do you have a suggested debugger/programmer  - like the Cylcone, but for K10

4) Will you be integrating the compiler into the Codewarrior for V10 - if so, when?

5) Why bother with Coldfire+ (all my products are currently based on V1 and S08)

6) Why so much Flash on the K10, when all I can get is 256k on V1?

Best regards, Norman Ballard

Hi Norman,

Good to here from you! Hope you are doing well.  So in summary here are response to your questions:

1) You can run 1st families at 100MHz and execute from Flash with 0 wait states. This is based on contiguous access executing 16bit instructions based on Thumb2 instruction set.

2) K10 samples are orderable just now from Freescale, very limited quantities. We expect to have improved volumes available early 2011.  1st packages to samples will be 144BGA and 144LQFP. Through 1st half 2011 we will support in addition 100- & 80-pin LQFP & 104- & 81-MAPBGA. For larger or smaller packages they will become available in 2nd half 2011. if there is a specific package let me know and I can be more specific and provide part numbers for reference.

3) With our Tower Development platform we will have the OSJTAG interface available.  For target boards there are a range of solutions. Initial one to be supported will be Segger J-Link cable. We will also be supported Cyclone Pro and Multi-Link Cables and other options from other 3rd parties including Green Hills, Lauterbach among others.  It will depend on your key requirements for your efforts.

4) Yes, we will integrated a compiler into CodeWarrior10.0. Official production version is available in January 2011.  We are testing today initial beta releases.

5) ColdFire+ will provide a good range of solutions for cost and power optimized application needs where suppliers have no preference on core, but need a low cost, ultra-low-power solution. We see this platform being very popular for developers looking at consumer targeted portable products.

6) Freescale is targeting the Kinetis family to address the broad line market requirements spanning multiple markets so we have to offer a broad range of memory and package options to address the broadest set of needs. ColdFire is targeted at very specific applications so we optimize the memory and packages to meet those specific set of needs.

If I've missed any poitns or you need more information behind specific points please don't hesitate to contact me.

Thanks & Best Regards,

Gordon

Hi Norman,

Good to here from you! Hope you are doing well.  So in summary here are response to your questions:

1) You can run 1st families at 100MHz and execute from Flash with 0 wait states. This is based on contiguous access executing 16bit instructions based on Thumb2 instruction set.

2) K10 samples are orderable just now from Freescale, very limited quantities. We expect to have improved volumes available early 2011.  1st packages to samples will be 144BGA and 144LQFP. Through 1st half 2011 we will support in addition 100- & 80-pin LQFP & 104- & 81-MAPBGA. For larger or smaller packages they will become available in 2nd half 2011. if there is a specific package let me know and I can be more specific and provide part numbers for reference.

3) With our Tower Development platform we will have the OSJTAG interface available.  For target boards there are a range of solutions. Initial one to be supported will be Segger J-Link cable. We will also be supported Cyclone Pro and Multi-Link Cables and other options from other 3rd parties including Green Hills, Lauterbach among others.  It will depend on your key requirements for your efforts.

4) Yes, we will integrated a compiler into CodeWarrior10.0. Official production version is available in January 2011.  We are testing today initial beta releases.

5) ColdFire+ will provide a good range of solutions for cost and power optimized application needs where suppliers have no preference on core, but need a low cost, ultra-low-power solution. We see this platform being very popular for developers looking at consumer targeted portable products.

6) Freescale is targeting the Kinetis family to address the broad line market requirements spanning multiple markets so we have to offer a broad range of memory and package options to address the broadest set of needs. ColdFire is targeted at very specific applications so we optimize the memory and packages to meet those specific set of needs.

If I've missed any poitns or you need more information behind specific points please don't hesitate to contact me.

Thanks & Best Regards,

Gordon

Hi Gordon

I've run out of Flash (and MIPs) on the V1 cores, but would like to stay with an embedded processor and it has to be Freescale, so Kinetis has arrived just in time.  I want to get going on a new project with it ASAP.  I am however extremely reluctant to go BGA and so would like to use 144QFP.  Do you know when samples of the K40 will be available in QFP? 

Best regards, Norman

Hi Norman,

We will have samples in Q1 2011of the 144LQFP. How much Flash memory are you looking to use? I can provide a Part Number for sample orders.  Orders can then be loaded via any authorized distributor or via Freescale's on-line tool.

Best Regards,
Gordon