It has been a busy few days for Freescale Semiconductor and the Internet of Things (IoT).
During the recent ARM TechCon, the chip company helped to launch the Internet of Things Tomorrow Tour – a 20,000 mile road trip in a truck trailer retrofitted with 120 IoT products that will go cross country – and now it has unveiled a IoT gateway reference design in collaboration with TechNexion for a wide variety of next-generation devices.
Using Freescale’s ARM-based QorIQ LS1021A communications processor, the gateway reference design is said to shorten design cycles and speed time to market for OEMs as well as allow IoT service providers to replace multiple boxes with a single, low-cost unified appliance, Freescale said. This reference design can be used to build applications such as building/home management, smart cities, networked industrial services and other performance-heavy applications.
The design is centered on Freescale’s QorIQ processors that features two ARM Cortex-A7 cores, enhanced error checking and correction technology build on Freescale’s Layerscape system architecture. Freescale said the gateway design also includes an assortment of high speed and serial-based connectors including dual USB 3.0 ports, a full size SATAIII port and twin minPCle connectors. The gateway also integrates Freescale’s Kinetis K20 microcontroller, an audio codec and a control area network (CAN) PHYs as well as Freescale’s MC34VR500 multi-output DC-DC converter for power management.
Marcel van den Heuvel, CEO of TechNexion, said in a statement the IoT gateway provides “customers a ready-made platform that can fast-track their IoT application to market.”
The IoT gateway is available now from Freescale for $429.
In other Freescale news, the Austin, Texas-based company has added two solid-state RF power transistors to its portfolio designed to enable next-generation microwave oven applications.
The solid-state RF power devices are designed to withstand harsh RF heating environments without performance degradation, Freescale said. These solid-state devices would replace traditional magnetron technology in microwaves that relies on an on-off control function whereas the solid-state devices enable a more effective use of energy that allows RF energy to be controlled, enabling the possibility for new oven shapes, sizes and functionalities, Freescale said.
A traditional magnetron devices versus Freescale’s solid-state RF transistors.
This could include microwave ovens that offer differentiated cooking methods, longer lasting appliances, more precise cooking, a better quality of cooking, selective heating and other cooking combinations.
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