i.MX27 Multimedia Applications Processor

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In response to the needs of design engineers tasked with pushing the performance envelope, packing in a lot of connectivity options and providing robust security in mobile device designs, Freescale presents the i.MX27 multimedia applications processor.

Derived from the popular i.MX21 processor and based on the ARM926EJ-S™ core, the i.MX27 processor adds an H.264 D1 hardware codec for high resolution video processing, an Ethernet 10/100 MAC, security, plug-and-play connectivity and more power management features. This rich feature set makes it an excellent choice for video- and voice over-IP (V2IP) cordless and mobile phones, intelligent remote controls, point-of-sale terminals and many other wireless applications.

 

FEATURES CPU Complex ARM926EJ-S™ 400MHz @ 1.6V, 266MHz @ 1.2V 16Kb L1 I- and D-caches 16-channel DMA Architecture compatible with i.MX21 ETM real-time debug Low Power Active well-bias Dynamic process temperature compensation Dynamic voltage and frequency scaling Security Sahara2 Crypto Accelerator (AES, 3DES) Electronically blown fuse box for custom HW IDs Connectivity Ethernet MAC 6x UARTs, IrDA 480Mbps USBOTG + 2 Hosts Expansion MemStick Pro, PCMCIA/CF, MMC and SD/SDIO card interface ATA-6 HDD interface Multimedia MPEG 4/ H.263/H.264 D1 @ 30fps HW Codec w/ pre- and post-processing High speed CMOS sensor I/F + I2C External Memory Interface 16/32-bit SDRAM @ 133MHz 16/32-bit DDR @ 266MHz 8/16-bit NAND Flash, PSRAM support Technology - Low power 90nm

 

 

 

Changes From i.MX21

New Features:

• 10/100baseT Ethernet MAC
• Memory Stick Pro
• 3 additional general purpose timer channels
• 2 additional irDA capable UARTS for a total of 6
• ATA Host Controller
• 1 additional I²C for control of USB transceiver
• 1 additional MMC/SD controller
• Symmetric / Asymmetric Hashing and Random Accelerator (SAHARA2)
• Secure RTC

Enhanced Features:

• ARM926 at 400MHz
• USB 2.0 OTG high speed
• EMI updated with mobile DDR
• Video CODEC updated with D1 H264, H.263 P3
• Pre- and post-processing with added rotation, mirroring, zoom
• Updated LCDC with 24-bit panel support
• SCC updated with isolated power supply for keeping secure information on standby power
• JTAG boundary scan support added

 

i.MX21 and i.M27 Compatibility

• i.MX27 is similar to the i.MX21 with some i.MX31 features + other features of its own. However, i.MX27 is not a part replacement for i.MX21 or i.MX31
• The i.MX27 package has a 0.65mm pitch, 404 balls, 1 7x 17 matrix. Whereas the i.MX21 has only 289 balls, 0.8 pitch. There is no pin per pin compatibility between both processors.
• Some of the internal modules are similar so customers that worked on the i.MX21 can design upgraded systems. Especially if they want to take advantage of the new features or upgrades that i.MX27 offers.

 

Connectivity Features

• Serial Ports:
• 6x UART, 3x CSPI, 2x SSI/I²S, 2x I²C IrDA, 1-Wire
• Expansion Ports
• PCMCIA, Compact Flash
• 3x MMC/SDHC (support SDIO)
• Memory Stick PRO
• USB 2.0
• OTG - high speed (480Mbps), external transceiver support, ULPI and serial interface
• Two Hosts – 1 high speed (480Mbps), 1 full speed (12Mbps) – TLL (Transceiver-Less Link)
• ATA
• ATA-6, Ultra DMA 66 MByte/s – for HDD connection
• Audio MUX
• Flexible physical muxing of internal and external audio streams
• 10/100 Ethernet MAC
• (10M/100Mbps, IEE 802.3, MII) and 7-wire standard interface

 

External Memory Interface

• NAND Flash Controller
• 8/16-bit NAND Flash interface, supporting boot from Flash (2KByte and 512Byte pages)
• SDRAM -133MHz, 32/16-bit interface
• DDR -133MHz, 32/16-bit interface
• EIM – External Interface Module
• Flexible interface with address, data and control bus to connect to a variety of external devices
• Supported memories include NOR Flash, SRAMs, PSRAMs and can boot from NOR flash on CS0
• Can be used to interface with other memory mapped external devices such as graphics processors, GPS chips, etc.

 

Multimedia Hardware Acceleration

• MPEG4/H.263/H.264 @ D1 resolution, 30fps
• Primary application is video conferencing – H.264 compressibility ratio is better than MPEG-4 and H.263
• Optimally combined multi-codec HW Accelerator
• MPEG-4 Simple Profile / H.264 Baseline Profile / H.264 Profile 3 codec
• D1 (720x480) resolution decoding or encoding (half duplex) at 30fps
• VGA resolution simultaneous decoding and encoding (full duplex) at 25fps
• Advanced motion estimation algorithm for high quality encoding
• Support for the MPEG-4 AVC codec as well as the MPEG-4 codec
• Can perform encode and decode in parallel for video conferencing applications

 

Multimedia – eMMA

• Video Pre/Post-Processing / Hardware CODEC
• Performs deblock, dering, color space conversion, zoom and image scaling in parallel to video encoding and decoding
• Supports multiple video codecs such as Windows Media, Real Networks and Packet Video

 

 

Where Does i.MX Fit?

 

 

i.MX27 Evaluation Board

 

 

 Featured Products

Part Number		Description	Data Sheet	App. Notes
MCIMX27ADSE		Evaluation Board for the i.MX27 Application Processor

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