Freescale automotive instrumentation complete solution

At the beginning of January 2010, the "Freescale Charging Bar" technical symposium showed and discussed the complete solution of automotive instrumentation. The forum attracted many engineers, experts, scholars and practitioners to carry out active discussions on the instrument type, function and scope of application. Mr. Zhang Xi, Freescale Semiconductor Global Automotive Microcontroller Product Marketing Engineer, started with the current division of the mainstream automotive instrumentation market and technical hot spots, and shared with netizens the unique technology of Freescale as the world's largest supplier of automotive electronic semiconductors And advanced concepts. The discussion object of this symposium covers a variety of different grades of automobile instruments, including entry-level two-wheeled motorcycle instruments, high-end instruments with six-meter head and high-resolution color display, and ultra-high-end high-performance for high-dynamic content display Display virtual instrument.

Entry-level automotive applications are one of the fastest growing segments of the automotive industry. Freescale's entry-level dual-head black and white segment code display instrument is a cost-effective liquid crystal display (LCD) control solution that Freescale provides for a variety of automotive instruments and industrial control, namely the 8-bit microcontroller (MCU) series MC9S08LG32 MCU. The S08LG series provides cost-effective embedded control and user interface solutions for electricity meter applications, HVAC control, digital thermostats, household appliances and fitness equipment. In addition, S08LG devices are also ideal for various body control applications, such as instrument clusters for entry-level vehicles in emerging markets.

There are two main advantages of this solution. First of all, S08LG devices of various flash memory sizes are used with 5V power supply, and the flexible LCD module power management configuration helps to reduce the total power consumption; secondly, the automotive-grade 8-bit MCU can provide excellent electromagnetic interference (EMI) and electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) performance.

The S08LG series is a member of Freescale's growing portfolio of automotive instrumentation MCU product lines, with on-chip LCD drivers. The technical features of the S08LG MCU series include:

1. HCS08 CPU core up to 40 MHz

2. Up to 32 KB of on-chip dual-bank flash memory emulated by EEPROM

3. Up to 2 KB of on-chip RAM

4. Integrated LCD driver, most configurable to 8 x 37 or 4 x 41 segments

5. All LCD pins are multiplexed with general-purpose input / output (GPIO)

6. For other product specifications and technical data, please refer to the relevant webpage of Freescale

Also designed specifically for the electronic instrument panel of entry-level cars is the 16-bit S12HY microcontroller series. This series with integrated LCD and stepper motor drive is the newest member of the 16-bit MCU series of Freescale's expanding lineup. It combines economical and practical 16-bit performance and the best on-chip functions. It is very suitable for emerging automotive markets. Cost-sensitive dashboard application.

The advantages of S12HY MCU are very obvious. First, the series provides the most suitable level of on-chip integration, enabling the migration from mechanical solutions still in use in emerging markets to modern electromechanical dashboards; secondly, there are few discrete components required, and the high degree of on-chip integration of the device can help Reduce system cost; third, the integrated liquid crystal display driver can support up to 160 segments for the LCD-based instrument panel; fourth, the device's on-chip stepper motor controller can drive up to 4 instrument heads to achieve speedometer, Accurate step-by-step control of the tachometer and other analog gauges; in addition, the MCU has a controller area network (CAN) module that simplifies data communication between the engine and the instrument panel.

The S12HY device provides up to 64KB of on-chip non-volatile code flash memory and 4KB of data flash memory for data storage with error correction code (ECC) technology. Freescale's flash-based MCUs can compete with the price of hard-coded read-only memory (ROM) devices, but at the same time have more flexibility. Using flash-based solutions, developers can design a variety of different dashboards based on a reprogrammable 16-bit MCU product. Such a simple dashboard development achieves a reduction in system cost, simpler manufacturing logistics and faster time to market.

The main features of S12HY MCU are:

1. HCS12 CPU core with 32 MHz bus

2. On-chip memory

3. Up to 64KB flash memory with ECC

4. 4KB data flash with ECC

5. 4KB SRAM

6. Integrated LCD driver, configurable up to 40 x 4 segments (160 segments in total)

7. Stepper motor controller with 4 instrument head drives

8. Scalable Controller Area Network (MSCAN) module (supports CAN 2.0A / B)

9. Phase-locked loop (PLL) frequency multiplier with internal filter

10. Two timer modules with I / O channels can provide various 16-bit input capture, output comparison, count and pulse accumulator functions

11. Pulse width modulation module (PWM) with up to 8 8-bit channels

12. Up to 8 channels, 10-bit resolution analog-to-digital converter

13. Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI) module

14. Serial communication interface (SCI) module, supporting LIN 2.0, 2.1 and SAE J2602 communication

15. Internal integrated circuit (I2C) module

16. On-chip voltage regulator (VREG), used to adjust the input power and internal voltage

17. 64-pin and 100-pin flat package (LQFP)


S12HY Example ApplicaTIons

In order to meet the needs of next-generation automotive instrument cluster applications using TFT (thin film transistor) displays, Freescale expanded the Power Architecture MCU portfolio and launched the MPC560xS MCU series, which is a high-end instrument with six meters and high-resolution color display . The series is also designed to meet the needs of a large number of automotive applications that require 32-bit performance and are cost-sensitive.

TFT displays used to be limited to high-end vehicles, but their use in low-end and middle-end vehicles has begun to spread. The MPC560xS product series uses a cost-effective single-chip solution to directly drive TFT displays, which can meet the requirements of entry-level systems and complex instrumentation applications. The MPC560xS device not only supports the TFT display in the car dashboard, but also can drive analog gauges and liquid crystal displays (LCDs).

The advantage of the MPC560xS MCU is that it can easily handle complex graphical content, such as photos, charts, languages, and fonts. The series includes a complex integrated display controller (DCU) driving WVGA (Wide Video Graphics Array) TFT display. The internal display memory can be used to help process graphic content to achieve the purpose of displaying on the color TFT panel. If you want to display the graphic content on the HVGA (Half-VAG) screen size, you can use the QuadSPI interface in the serial flash memory to expand the display memory. The MPC560xS series provides scalable solutions. Currently, 1MB flash memory samples have been launched, and larger and smaller flash memory versions will be introduced in the future.


MPC560xS Family Overview

To enhance its leadership in the 32-bit automotive system and embedded systems market, Freescale Semiconductor has introduced a highly integrated system-on-chip (SoC) processor MPC5121e. The processor can optimize high-performance, power-sensitive applications that need to support complex image processing, multimedia applications, and real-time audio processing functions. The MPC5121e device is based on PowerArchitecture â„¢ technology and is the latest product in the Freescale mobileGT processor family. This series is the most widely used platform solution in the field of information and communication. It uses advanced 90-nanometer low-power CMOS technology to provide exceptional multimedia performance and a feature-rich user interface in a low-power package without compromising flexibility and toughness. It fully complies with the automotive industry standards, so it is an ideal product for information communication, connectivity and driver interaction vehicle applications.

Mike McCourt, Vice President and General Manager of the Microcontroller Division at Freescale, said: "MPC5121e is Freescale's most powerful and feature-rich processor for information and communication applications. The multi-core architecture of this device integrates PowerArchitecture core and dedicated 2D / 3D graphics processing core and powerful real-time audio and multimedia enhanced coprocessor are combined. The integrated functions of these cores make the processor very suitable for advanced display, image function / multimedia acceleration, network connectivity and mass storage Next-generation applications. "