Freescale develops MCU for BMW sports cars

Freescale Semiconductor has developed a microcontroller (MCU) based on its Power Architecture technology in collaboration with BMW, to enable reliable communication between vehicle subsystems.

Freescale's 32-bit MCU for BMW's 2010 luxury sports activity vehicles (SAVs) offers dual-core architecture and is said to enable unparalleled performance and integration to help reduce the cost and design complexity of connecting in-vehicle networks together at a single point.

Freescale worked with BMW through each design phase to help provide solutions to the challenges posed by the exponential increase in network traffic between electronic subsystems.

The jointly created solution is expected to be deployed in the next BMW 1 and 3 Series, and on the new X3 platform.

Freescale's automotive processors based on Power Architecture technology are stringently tested to withstand the harsh environment in automotive applications.

The MPC5668G MCU acts as a gateway that interconnects many different electronic control units (ECU) that help control a range of automotive body and driver convenience features.

Freescale is able to provide this precision control technology using a single integrated circuit.

In addition to precise electronics control, the Freescale MCU also takes the information from the ECUs and provides a central point for communication with the external world.

This integration on a single chip enhances the speed of diagnostics and reprogramming of other modules found throughout the vehicle.

Back to top