Ready reference design from Freescale
Semiconductor for tablet smarbooks
Freescale Semiconductor has designed a tablet-formfactor
sized smartbook by using its processors and other semiconductor
devices. Its offering the reference design featuring a 7-inch
touch screen with up to four times the viewing area of a
typical smartphone with a form factor of one-third the size
and volume of typical netbook.
The chips used are Freescale's SoC class i.MX515 processor
powered by ARM Cortex-A8 processor core. Other semiconductor
devices used from Freescale include MC13892 power management
IC, SGTL5000 audio codec and MMA8450Q 3-axis accelerometer.
The key features of the smartbook reference design are,
Small/thin form factor (200mm x 128mm x 14.9cm and weighing
376 grams), no need for fan or heat sink
OpenVG & OpenGL/ES graphics cores
HD video decoder hardware
Battery charging system for both USB and wall charging
Output buck converters for the processor core and memory
Boost converters for LCD backlighting
Serial backlight drivers for displays and keypad, plus RGB
LED drivers
512 MB DDR2 memory
4-64 GB internal storage, removable micro SD
3G modem (option) 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 2.1, GPS, RF4CE
(option) connectivity
USB 2.0 and USB mini (also for charging), audio in/audio
out, SIM card ports
Speaker, microphone
3 MP camera (video recording up to VGA at 30fps)
Battery: 1900mAh, USB charging
Smartbook platform applications intended to run on the
tablet such as a web browser with Adobe Flash Player and
multimedia plug-ins, a media center, PDF and image viewers,
a mail client, an RSS reader, an office suite, handwriting
utilities and various widgets for Twitter, Facebook, Flickr,
Weather SMS and other applications.
"Freescale's new tablet opens the door to an exciting
new world of compelling form factors specifically designed
and optimized to support common online activities including
social media, high-quality audio/video playback and light
gaming," said Henri Richard, senior vice president
of Sales and Marketing for Freescale. "We believe the
tablet will emerge as a popular form factor for the next
generation of smartbooks. By introducing this prototype
reference design, Freescale intends to play a vital role
in propelling the mainstream adoption of smartbooks."
"Semiconductor providers looking to differentiate
in the nascent tablet market will need to offer solutions-focused
system reference designs if they are to succeed with the
world's foremost consumer electronics OEMs," said Jeff
Orr, senior mobile devices analyst at ABI Research. "There
is clearly strong end-user demand for tablet form-factors,
and new reference designs look to play a major role in helping
OEMs speed tablet smartbook products to market."
Availability: From beginning of Feb 2010
For more details visit www.freescale.com
