Embedded Planet Announces Support for PowerQUICC III Family from Freescale

PrPMC Single Board Computer Supporting MPC8540, MPC8541E, MPC8555E, and MPC8560 Processors

Cleveland, OH (PRWEB) June 23, 2005 -- Embedded Planet, a leading single board computer and embedded systems provider, today announced support for the Freescale Semiconductor PowerQUICC III family of processors containing PowerPC cores with the addition of the EP85xxM to their line of single board computers. The EP85xxM continues in Embedded Planets tradition of providing production ready boards that can be used out of the box with a simple wall cube power supply, serial cable, and Ethernet cable. It is the perfect solution for engineers looking for a jumpstart on MPC85xx development with a smooth transition to a production environment.

Freescales PowerQUICC III line provides a highly scalable and performance oriented platform for advanced networking applications," said Matt Hoover, Embedded Planet Vice President of Sales and Marketing. We are excited to be bringing such a powerful computing solution to the market that will ultimately simplify and speed time-to-market for our customers."

The EP85xxM can be configured as a standalone single board computer with the included power supply or as a PrPMC/PT4MC (PICMG 2.15) module for use in CompactPCI telecommunication applications. It can be configured with up to 256MB of flash, 512MB of SDRAM, and 512kB of NVRAM. For external connectivity each board includes 2 Gigabit Ethernet ports and 1 serial port all brought to RJ-45 connectors.

Embedded Planet has a history of providing platforms for Freescale silicon solutions," said Lakshmi Mandyam, PowerQUICC III product marketing manager at Freescale Semiconductor. The EP85xxM and the included software packages are designed to enable OEMs to quickly develop applications leveraging the power and feature set of the PowerQUICC III family of processors. We are pleased to also offer the Embedded Planet solution as a part of our QUICCstart series of evaluation boards."

The PowerQUICC III family continues Freescales tradition of providing a highly integrated silicon solution which includes a PowerPC core and a dedicated communications processor module. Each member of the PowerQUICC III family includes an e500 PowerPC core with 256kB of integrated layer two cache, and the core frequencies scale up to 1GHz. The communications processor module includes dedicated interfaces for low-level communications tasks to enable the PowerPC core to handle higher-level processing. In addition the MPC8555E and the MPC8541E include dedicated security engines to offload security processing from the main core. This high level of integration allows for fewer components and a simplified board design, thereby helping to lower overall system cost and power requirements.

The EP85xxM will be available for purchase from Embedded Planet in the third quarter of 2005. Embedded Planet will provide Linux and VxWorks BSPs to enable rapid application development and shorten time-to-market. As with all Embedded Planet products the EP85xxM can be customized to meet specific customer requirements.

About Embedded Planet

Embedded Planet was founded in 1997 and has pioneered the Design, Develop and Deploy process in OEM systems development of connected devices. The company provides small form factor, low cost computing solutions for the Freescale PowerQUICC and PowerPC families of processors. Each module includes Embedded Planets PlanetCore, which provides firmware and utilities for burning flash, booting the target operating system, setup, diagnostics and utilities of the hardware. Embedded Planet also provides system design and system integration, including intellectual property, component solutions and development of turnkey products. For more information, please see www.embeddedplanet.com, email info@embeddedplanet.com, or call 216-245-4180.

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