New ColdFire processors supporting digital voice from Freescale Semiconductor

Freescale Semiconductor has introduced the ColdFire MCF5301x 32-bit family of microprocessors (MPUs) for industrial and consumer applications.

The MCF5301x family, based on the V3 ColdFire core designed to consume low power and has extensive connectivity options with an audio subsystem. The applications recommended for this processor are general industrial control applications, including the optional digital voice solution for intercom and public address systems.

The audio subsystem includes a speech coder-decoder (CODEC), microphone, headset and loudspeaker amplifiers. In addition, an optional non-recurring engineering (NRE)-free VoIP-based digital voice software solution was designed in partnership with Encore Software and Arcturus Networks specifically for industrial and consumer applications.

The connectivity options includes dual 10/100 Ethernet media access controllers (MACs), two smart card interfaces, two USB controllers and an SDIO host controller for easy connection to flash memory cards or wireless connectivity modules, such as the Redpine's n-Link 802.11n Wi-Fi modules. V3 ColdFire CPU feature enhanced multiply accumulate unit, 16 KB of cache and 128 KB of integrated SRAM.

The MCF5301x is supported by Freescale's CodeWarrior Development studio for Microcontrollers v.7.2 and third-party hardware and software tools.

Availability: Now

Price: Each $7.99 for 10K pieces.
The price of evaluation boards (M53015EVB): MSRP $599
Digital Voice Solution Kit (M53017KIT): MSRP $799
Production Ready Digital Voice Module (M53017MOD): MSRP at 1,000-unit quantities $118

For more information visit www.freescale.com/coldfire