Freescale expands Tower System with new, feature-rich modules
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The Freescale Tower System development platform, which the company claims has rapidly become an industry standard, has been expanded with new, feature-rich development boards (modules) for medical, industrial and general embedded applications.
Four new controller modules, two interchangeable peripheral modules and five complete Tower System kits for the reconfigurable development platform have been announced.
The new controller modules feature the Kinetis family (90 nanometer, 32-bit microcontrollers (MCUs) based on the ARM Cortex-M4 core), as well as 8-bit S08 and 32-bit ColdFire Flexis MCUs.
Two new peripheral modules add high-precision analogue functionality and low-power Wi-Fi for sensor and embedded applications that require battery-powered wireless connectivity.
One of the first development boards for Kinetis MCUs, the TWR-K40X256 module, enables design and evaluation with the K30 and K40 families. This development board is suited for ultra-low-power applications like GPS receivers, bike computers, currency counters and blood glucose monitors. It features the on-board Kinetis K40 device, which includes full-speed USB 2.0 On-The-Go with device charge detect capability and a flexible low-power segment LCD controller with support for up to 320 segments.
The module also includes on-board capacitive touch pads; integrated, open-source JTAG; SD card slot; MMA7660 3-axis accelerometer; 28-segment LCD and Tower Plug-In (TWRPI) sockets for additional expansion (sensors, keypads, rotary dials, sliders, etc.).
The TWR-K60N512 module enables design and evaluation with the K10/20 and K60 families of Kinetis MCUs. Ideally suited for industrial applications like building automation controllers, elevator control panels, instrument clusters and surveillance cameras, TWR-K60N512 features the on-board Kinetis K60 device, which includes IEEE 1588 Ethernet, full- and high-speed USB 2.0 On-The-Go with device charge detect capability, hardware encryption and tamper detection capabilities.
Like the TWR-K40X256, this module also includes capacitive touch pads; integrated, open-source JTAG; an SD Card Slot; MMA7660 3-axis accelerometer; and Tower Plug-In (TWRPI) sockets for expansion.
The TWR-MC9S08JE module is the development tool for the low-power Flexis 8-bit MC9S08JE USB MCU family. This module features the on-board MC9S08JE device, providing ultra-low-power operation, USB connectivity and high measurement accuracy, high-resolution ADC and DAC modules, a rich peripheral set including a USB 2.0 device controller and multiple serial interfaces. A complete Tower System kit for this module is also available (TWR-S08JE128-KIT).
The TWR-MCF51JE module provides designers with a low-power, low-cost development tool that leverages the Flexis 32-bit ColdFire V1 family of MCUs. Like its 8-bit Flexis counterpart (MC9S08JE), this module features ultra-low-power operation, USB connectivity and high measurement accuracy, high-resolution ADC and DAC modules, a rich peripheral set including a USB 2.0 device controller, and multiple serial interfaces. A complete Tower System kit for this module is also available (TWR-MCF51JE-KIT).
The IAR KickStart Kit for the Freescale Kinetis K60 family of MCUs (TWR-K60N512-IAR) builds on the TWR-K60N512-KIT with the addition of the Prototyping module (TWR-PROTO), as well as the IAR J-Link Lite for Cortex-M debug probe and the IAR Embedded Workbench for ARM software, both from IAR Systems.
Advanced debugging is possible with the J-Link Lite – a small JTAG-emulator with serial wire debug/serial wire output (SWD/SWO) debugging support for Cortex-M devices. This kit is designed to speed time to market with packaged evaluation boards, software development tools, example projects and RTOS BSPs.
