Motorola announced a new low-power PowerPC processor aimed at a broad range of embedded applications including gateways, industrial controllers, automative telematics and GPS, instrumentation, and image processing. The MPC5200 is based on a 400MHz PowerPC 603e core (with Floating Point Unit) that performs at 760 MIPS (million instruction per second) while consuming less than 850 milliwatts of power,… Motorola said.

In addition to its PowerPC 603e core, the MPC5200 includes a ROM/RAM/Flash memory controller along with a long list of on-chip interfaces for: Ethernet, dual CAN (Controller Area Network), J1850, dual USB 1.1 Host ports, ATA (IDE) hard drives, I2S (Inter-IC sound), I2C (Inter-IC serial), SPI (serial peripheral interface), AC97 CODEC interface, six programmable serial controllers (PSCs), general purpose I/O / real-time clock / timers, and a PCI bus controller. The processor is packaged in a 272-pin PBGA (plastic ball grid array) and supports full operation over -40 to +85 degrees Celsius, with restricted operation over -40 to +105 C, enabling its use in automotive and other environmentally intense applications.

Lite5200 evaluation board for MPC5200

In conjunction with Motorola's announcement, MontaVista Software announced embedded Linux support for the 400MHz low-power version of the MPC5200 processor, as well as for Motorola's Lite5200 evaluation board (pictured above). MontaVista Linux Professional Edition 3.0 for the MPC5200 processor will be available in the fourth quarter of 2003, the company said.

 
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