Hella Uses Freescale Controller in Lane Departure Warning System Concept

Business Wire, Feb 22, 2005

NUREMBURG, Germany -- MPC5200, based on mobileGT(TM) technology, has computing power designed to enable future features

Hella has developed a hardware concept for a lane departure warning system based on Freescale Semiconductor's (NYSE:FSL) (NYSE:FSL.B) 32-bit MPC5200 controller containing a PowerPC(TM) core. Using the MPC5200, Hella can easily connect its system to a camera that provides an overview of the street and driving lanes in front of the car.

Drivers' expectations are rapidly increasing, putting pressure on car manufacturers and Tier 1 suppliers to provide more advanced automotive electronic solutions, such as driver-assistance safety features.

Hella is a major global automotive supplier, known for its products in the area of advanced driver assistance systems. Hella chose Freescale for its lane departure solution because of the MPC5200's computational power, which is designed to allow the integration of future processor-intensive functions, including real-time object recognition.

"For future image processing applications, we need high-performance controllers able to process a high data stream and complex algorithms under real-time conditions," said Rolf Kupper, vice president of Hella responsible for the Driver Assistance Systems product line. "The MPC5200 is a good choice, with some performance reserves for additional functionality."

The MPC5200 mobileGT platform is supported by several real-time operating system (RTOS) and application software suppliers, allowing customers to license software from the source that best fits their needs.

"The MPC5200 is a ready-to-go combination of proven hardware and software technologies," said Bill Pfaff, vice president and general manager of Freescale's Transumer (transportation + consumer) business. "It allows Hella to rapidly develop applications based on our mobileGT(TM) development platform."

MPC5200 features

The MPC5200 is a 32-bit embedded controller based on the PowerPC instruction set architecture. It is designed for a variety of automotive applications, and key features include:

--High performance of 760 MIPS at 400 MHz with integrated floating point unit (FPU)

--Low power consumption (approximately one watt)

--Wide variety of integrated input/output (I/O), including controller area network (CAN), J1850, peripheral component interconnect (PCI), double data rate (DDR) synchronous dynamic random access memory (SDRAM), multiple serial communications interfaces (I2S, I2C, SPI and multiple UARTs), universal serial bus (USB), Ethernet and ATA/IDE.

--Integrated DDR memory controller that accelerates data access with an effective memory bus speed of 266 MHz

--Integrated BestComm DMA controller that offloads I/O-intensive data transfers from the PowerPC(R) processor core. This facilitates rapid data movement through the device, a feature crucial for automotive camera systems.

--Minus 40 to 85 degrees Celsius extended temperature qualification

--Long-term availability due to automotive market applicability

Comprehensive development support

To help customers streamline time-to-market, Freescale supports the MPC5200 with a choice of comprehensive development platforms. The cost-effective Lite5200 Evaluation Board (EVB) Kit is ideal for customers who want to quickly develop their own hardware solutions with the MPC5200. This kit supports Board Support Packages (BSPs) for ARC MQX(R), Green Hills Software's INTEGRITY(R), CodeWarrior(TM) Linux(R), MontaVista(R) Linux(R), OSE Systems GmbH(R), QNX(R) Neutrino(R) and Wind River(R) VxWorks(R).

The comprehensive Total5200 Development Platform is well-suited for rapid prototyping. This system offers robust I/O expansion, an integrated LCD with touch screen and a full audio subsystem. Also available on the Total 5200 Development Platform are the QNX(R) Neutrino(R) RTOS and IBM(R) WebSphere(R) support for the Java(R) programming language, as well as Clarity CVC(R), Fonix(R) Embedded Speech, IBM Embedded ViaVoice(R), ScanSoft and Wavemakers(R) ClearStream(R) speech recognition solutions.

Price and availability

The Lite5200 EVB Kit and Total5200 Development Platform are available today, with suggested resale prices staring at $995 and $5,000 (USD), respectively.

Additional information about the MPC5200: www.freescale.com/files/pr/hella-mpc5200.html

About Hella KGaA Hueck & Co., Lippstadt

The automotive supplier develops and manufactures components and systems for lighting and electronics for the automotive industry. In addition, joint venture companies produce complete vehicle modules, air conditioning systems and vehicle electrical systems. Hella is one of the world's largest companies selling automotive parts and accessories, with its own sales companies and partners in more than 100 countries. The consolidated turnover of the Hella group is 3 billion Euros. Hella is one of the 100 largest industrial companies in Germany. A total of 23,900 people are employed in 65 manufacturing facilities, production subsidiaries and joint venture companies in 18 countries. More than 2,000 engineers and technicians work in research and development. Customers include all major vehicle and system manufacturers as well as the motor vehicle parts trade.