Motorola Inc has launched a new member of the PowerPC family specifically for the automotive industry, after working on the design with an unnamed car manufacturer. The PowerPC MPC555 is a 32-bit, single chip microcontroller designed to manage all engine and transmission control functions for automobiles. It uses the same core as the 800 Series of embedded PowerPC processors, but adds 448Kbytes of Flash memory, the most Motorola has ever crammed onto a microcontroller. The memory uses a new 0.36 micron one transistor flash cell design, and is likely to appear in other Motorola products in the consumer and communications space in the near future. The MPC555, which runs at 40MHz, also has more transistors (6.7m) and more on-board peripherals (eight) than any of its previous chips. Integration means reduced power consumption, with the core using a 3.3 volt supply, and a wider range of operating temperatures – important, as Motorola has designed the chip to be housed on the engine itself. It works at temperatures ranging from -40 degrees Celsius to +125 degrees Celsius, including erasing and programming memory operations, enabling car engines to be re-configured immediately they have pulled into the garage. On board peripherals include a floating point unit, control area networks and analog to digital converters, and existing peripherals can also be hooked up via the InterModule Bus, which Motorola has been using since 1989. The chip supports third party real-time operating system software from Hewlett-Packard Co and Etas GmbH, and various third party compilers and debuggers. Motorola says it has three other car manufacturers interested in the part, but has already delivered early silicon to its prime development partner. That company isn’t Ford, however. Ford is the only automobile manufacturer to come clean about working with Motorola on engine controllers, committing to use the PowerPC in its early days, and working on the project ever since (CI No 2,634). The core of that development was the 505 processor. Motorola says that the part has now been enhanced and is getting closer to production but that development cycles are long. Although silicon for the new MPC555 chip is due in the second quarter, it’s unlikely to see its way into the first production cars until at least the year 2000. In the meantime, Motorola will push the chip at other industrial applications that need more power than its recently introduced M-Core range. Prices are $45 in quantities of 10,000, though Motorola says it hopes to get that price down to $30 by 2000. A familiarization board will cost $400, and there will also be a full-function development board. Further family members are under development.
