MontaVista says it will support a new communications processor from Freescale Semiconductor. The MPC8360E is based on an e300 PowerPC core clocked from 266MHz to 667MHz, and targets wired and wireless access and networking equipment, including MTUs (multi-tenant units), DSLAMs (DSL access multiplexers), wireless basestations, and more.

The MPC8360E is based on an e300 PowerPC core clocked up to 667MHz. It includes 32KB each of instruction and data cache. The chip also includes Freescale's QUICC networking engine, clocked up to 500MHz. The QUICC engine includes hardware-accelerated support for Ethernet, ATM, POS, TDM, and other networking line protocols.

Additional peripheral interfaces include a 32-bit DDR memory controller, localbus, PCI, DUART, SPI, USB, and an interrupt controller.

The Freescale MPC8360E architecture
(Click to enlarge)
Commenting on the importance of Linux support, Lynelle McKay, vice president and general manager of Freescale's Networking and Communications Systems Division, said, “As the market transitions from a circuit-switched, ATM-based global network to a packet-switched, IP based network, many communications vendors are looking at Linux as one of their next generation platforms.”

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