19 December 2006

TI Chooses ARM Cortex For Critical Automotive Apps

Texas Instruments (TI) has chosen the ARM Cortex -M3 and Cortex-R4 processors for use in critical automotive applications.

The ARM processors will be used in TI’s TMS470 and TMS570 MCU platforms respectively. The microcontroller platforms offer automakers and OEMs optimized solutions for applications such as braking, steering, chassis control, body and airbag systems.

TI’s TMS470 MCU platform, currently based on the ARM7TDMI processor, will add new pin-to-pin compatible devices based on the ARM Cortex-M3 processor. The Cortex-M3 processor enables lower power consumption and exceptional system response to interrupts, while delivering computational performance and excellent code density.

TI’s TMS570 MCU platform uses two ARM Cortex-R4 processors, combined with an initial two Mbytes of on-chip flash memory. Targeted safety critical applications include chassis control, braking/electronic vehicle stability and steering. The Cortex-R4 processor is tailored for advanced embedded control applications and features a selective superscalar micro architecture delivering more than 1.6 DMIPS/MHz in an efficient low gate count implementation.