Freescale Semiconductor will introduce a new i.MX23x processor targeting handheld devices, at its upcoming 2009 Freescale Technology Forum (FTF) conference opener in Orlando, Fla., Jun. 22-25. Sponsored by embedded Linux provider MontaVista, among others, this year's FTF series will also visit Japan, Germany, China, and India later in the year.

Whereas last year, Freescale tipped its new the i.MX35, i.MX37, and MPC8536 processors in its technical session descriptions, this year, there appears to be evidence of only one major new system-on-chip (SoC) announcement. Freescale lists a Consumer track session called “Introducing the i.MX233 Series to the General Embedded and Consumer Markets.” No other information is provided, except that the session is listed under the PND/PMP segment, suggesting it might be aimed at personal navigation devices or portable media players.

Freescale's i.MX31 PDK (Click for details)

MontaVista is once again collaborating with Freescale on training for the five global events. The Linux tools and operating system firm has been an FTF sponsor since the program's inception. Additionally, the two companies previously partnered on a multi-country road show, in which they demonstrated their combined products.

MontaVista has long supported numerous Freescale chips. For example, last June, MontaVista announced that its Mobilinux 5.0 Linux distribution for mobile devices had been optimized for the Freescale ARM11-based i.MX31 SoC. The optimization brought the total number of Freescale processors supported by MontaVista distributions to ten, said the company at the time.

Freescale will also be showing off other new processors, including the QorIQ, the oddly named heir to the PowerQUICC line. Also on demo will be Freescale's flyer at the hot netbook market, the ARM Cortex A8-based i.MX515, along with the Linux netbook reference design based on it, which Freescale says will run Android. (In other Android netbook news, Bloomberg has recently reported that Asus is developing an Android netbook prototype, but it is not clear whether this might be based on the i.MX515 SoC or on another platform.)

The five global FTF events for 2009 are scheduled as follows:

• FTF Americas — Jun. 22-25 in Orlando
• FTF Japan — Sep. 9 in Tokyo
• FTF EMEA — Oct. 20-21 in Frankfurt
• FTF China — Nov. 4-5 in Shenzhen
• FTF India — Nov. 11-12 in Bangalore

Technical sessions are organized into automotive, consumer, enabling technologies, industrial, and networking tracks. The following lists a sample session selected from each category:

• Automotive — Leveraging Linux to create an auto infotainment platform
• Consumer — Introducing the i.MX233 series to the general embedded and consumer markets (PND/PMP segment)
• Enabling Technologies — Android on i.MX
• Industrial — Connectivity for medical applications (USB and ZigBee)
• Networking — QorIQ P2020DS board bring-up with U-boot and Linux

Stated Rusty Harris, CEO of MontaVista, “The Freescale Technology Forum gives MontaVista multiple opportunities to show embedded developers how to get the most out of open source and Linux operating systems when using Freescale solutions based on i.MX processors, Power Architecture technology, and a broad range of other Freescale products.”

Availability

More information on the FTF events should be available here. Registration begins on March 16, says Freescale.

 
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