July 21, 2011 07:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time
Freescale Adds
Controller and Peripheral Modules and Full Kits to Tower System Development Platform
Fifteen additions to modular tool lineup, including modules featuring Kinetis and ColdFire+ microcontrollers, support rapid prototyping and help reduce time to market
AUSTIN, Texas–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Freescale Semiconductor (NYSE: FSL) continues to extend the Tower System development platform with new, feature-rich development boards (modules) for medical, industrial and general embedded applications. Today, Freescale announced eight new controller modules, three interchangeable peripheral modules and four comprehensive kits for the reconfigurable Tower System. In addition, the Tower System was awarded the 21st Annual EDN Innovation Award in the Development Kits, Reference Designs and Single-Board Computers category earlier this year.
The new controller modules feature Kinetis microcontrollers (90 nanometer, 32-bit MCUs based on the ARM® Cortex™-M4 core) and ColdFire+ Jx and Qx MCUs. Three new peripheral modules add fast network connectivity for wireless control and monitoring, a low-power audio interface and low-power 802.11 Wi-Fi™ for home wireless applications.
The Freescale Tower System provides designers with a customizable embedded design environment that offers mix-and-match tool selections to suit their design needs. Interchangeable, easy-to-use modules promote the reuse of hardware from across designs and architectures, helping to speed time to market and scale down overall tool costs.
Comprehensive kits
The following Tower System kits are new to the Tower System portfolio and provide designers what they need to get started with their evaluation, prototyping and design. Each Tower System kit includes the main controller module, at least one peripheral module and the Tower Elevator modules (backplanes) that provide power regulation circuitry to the assembled development system.
- The Keil Starter Kit (TWR-K60N512-KEIL) for the Freescale Kinetis K60 family of MCUs comes with the technology needed to help design quickly. This edition of the popular Tower System development kits for Kinetis comes with the Keil MDK™ tools for Freescale Kinetis MCUs based on the ARM® Cortex™-M4 core. This kit helps speed your time to market with packaged evaluation boards (TWR-K60N512, TWR-SER and TWR-ELEV), software development tools, a debug adapter cable, example projects and Freescale MQX RTOS sample applications. The ULINK-ME debug adapter allows you to program and debug embedded programs on the TWR-K60N512 through serial wire debug (SWD) or a JTAG connection.
- The new Kinetis K53 Tower System kit (TWR-K53N512-KIT) includes everything needed to prototype a design based on the Kinetis K50 family. This kit comes packaged with the controller module (TWR-K53N512) and a segment LCD daughter card (TWRPI-SLCD) along with the TWR-SER and TWR-ELEV modules. These can also be combined with an optional medical analog front-end board such as the electrocardiogram board (MED-EKB) to add more capabilities.
- Two new ColdFire+ Tower System kits (TWR-MCF51JF-KIT and TWR-MCF51QM) contain their respective MCU controller modules, two elevator boards (TWR-ELEV) and the TWR-PROTO prototyping module that allows designers to easily add custom circuitry to their Tower System designs.
About the Freescale Tower System
The Freescale Tower System is a modular development platform that helps developers quickly prototype and evaluate their applications. Designers can choose from a growing ecosystem of controller and peripheral modules. Simply select the development boards (modules) with the needed features and functionality, and combine them together to build a Tower System. In addition, standardized, open-source hardware allows Freescale customers and partners to design additional modules for added functionality and customization.
Pricing (MSRP, USD)
TWR-S08UNIV module and daughter cards$ 35.00 module ($14.00 each/DC)
TWR-S08UNIV (module and all daughter cards)$99
TWR-MCF51JF$ 79.00
TWR-MCF51QM$ 69.00
TWR-K53N512$109.00
TWR-Mech robot$199.00
TWR-S08GW64$ 99.00
TWR-S12G128$ 79.00
TWR-S12G32$ 79.00
TWR-AUDIO-SGTL$ 49.00
TWR-WiFi-AR4100$ 69.00
TWR-K60N512-KIT$139.00
TWR-K53N512-KIT$179.00
TWR-MCF51JF-KIT$119.00
TWR-MCF51QM-KIT$109.00
The complete Tower System portfolio, online training, videos and technical documentation are available at www.freescale.com/tower.
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