| Y | Y | Y | ||
| Audio codec support | Y | Y | Y | Y |
| Bluetooth & RF modem support interface | Y | Y | Y | Y |
| LCD controller | Y | Y | Y | Y |
| Display controllers | N | PAL/NTSC VGA/QVGA | PAL/NTSC VGA/QVGA | PAL/NTSC QVGA/XGA |
3.2.10. Freescale ARM
The success of the ARM architecture is made more evident by the fact that leading manufacturers of competing architectures have licensed ARM technology. As a prime example, Freescale Semiconductor has licensed ARM technology for its line of i.MX application processors. These popular ARM-based integrated processors have achieved widespread industry success in multimedia consumer devices such as portable game platforms, PDAs, and cellular handsets.
The Freescale ARM product portfolio includes the i.MX21 and i.MX31 application processors. The i.MX21 features an ARM9 core, and the i.MX31 has an ARM11 core. Like their TI counterparts, these SOCs contain many integrated peripherals required by portable consumer electronics devices with multimedia requirements. The i.MX21/31 contain some of the following integrated interfaces:
• Graphics accelerator
• MPEG-4 encoder
• Keypad and LCD controllers
• Camera interface
• Audio multiplexer
• IrDA infrared I/O
• SD/MMC interface
• Numerous external I/O, such as PCMCIA, USB, DRAM controllers, and UARTs for serial port connection
3.2.11. Intel ARM XScale
Intel manufactures and markets several integrated processors based on the ARM v5TE architecture. Intel uses the XScale name for the architecture. These products are grouped into several application categories. Table 3-10 summarizes the XScale families by application type.
Table 3-10. Intel XScale Processor Summary
| Category | Application | Example Processors |
|---|---|---|
| Application processors | Cellular handsets and PDAs | PXA27x, PXA29x |
| I/O processors | High-speed data processing used in storage, printing, telematics, and so on | IOP331/332/333 |
| Network processors | Networking and communications data plane processing, fast packet processing, and so on | IXP425, IXP465 IXP2350, IXP2855 |
Many consumer and networking products have been developed using Intel XScale architecture processors. Some well-known examples include the GPS iQue M5 from Garmin, the iPAQ by Hewlett-Packard, smart phones from Palm (Treo) and Motorola (A760), and many others. Linux currently supports all these processors.
Intel's network processors are found in high-performance networking equipment where requirements exist for fast data-path processing. Examples include deep packet inspection, data encryption/decryption, packet filtering, and signal processing. These network processors each contain an ARM core coupled with one or more dedicated processing engines, called a network processing engine (NPE). These NPEs are dedicated to specific data-path manipulation in real time at wire speeds. The NPE is a microprocessor, in the sense that it can execute microcoded algorithms in parallel with the thread of execution in the ARM core. Refer to the Intel website, at www.intel.com, for additional information on this powerful family of
