New Product Update

August, 2009 

New Product Update: i.MX for Consumer 

and General Embedded Market 

Sujata Neidig 

Product Manager 

Freescale and the Freescale logo are trademarks of Freescale Semiconductor, Inc. All other product or 

service names are the property of their respective owners. © Freescale Semiconductor, Inc. 2009. 

TM

► i.MX Applications Processor Overview 

• Target markets, product portfolio 

• ARM ® 

9 portfolio comparison 

• Platform support 

► i.MX233 Introduction 

• Target applications, product details 

• Development platform, enablement 

• System value 

• Availability 


service names are the property of their respective owners. © Freescale Semiconductor, Inc. 2009. 2 

Today’s Agenda 

TM

Portable Consumer 

► Portable Media Player 

► MID/Netbook 

► Smartphone 

► E-book 

► Personal Navigation 

Home Consumer 

► Media Phone/Terminal 

► iPod accessories 

► Remote controls 

► Digital Photo Frame 

► Appliances 



Freescale Multimedia Focus Markets 

Low-Power 

High Integration 

Advanced Performance 

Platform Software 

3 

Automotive Infotainment 

► Audio 

► Connectivity and 

Telematics 

► Video and Navigation 

Industrial 

► Point of Sale 

► Security and Surveillance 

► Industrial HMI 

► Medical 

► Metering 

TM

Freescale Applications Processor Value Proposition 

► Performance (MHz and Memory Efficiency) 

► Low Power (Audio < 18 mW system, HD720 Video < 250 mW) 

► State of the art Audio, Video, Graphics and Codecs 

► Consistent and scalable architecture 

► Complete OS/SW platform 

► Mixed signal integration 



4 

TM

► Pioneer in the portable media player market 



Freescale Mobile Consumer Leadership 

► #1 market share in eBook application processors 

► Shaping the smartbook product category 

160 

140 

120 

100 

MU 80 

60 

40 

20 

0 

Source: ABI Research April 2009 

Other 

TI 

Qualcomm 

Freescale 

x86 

18M 

17M 

18M 

21M 

65M 

2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 

Smartbook 

Netbook 

5 

TM

The Energy Efficient Solutions by 

Freescale mark is a new program 

Technology Expertise 

Freescale’s technology expertise in delivering product 

solutions optimized for high performance within 

constrained energy or power budgets 

Best-in-Class Product Solutions 

Freescale product solutions whose implementation of 

energy or power management technologies and/or 

performance within a specified energy budget over the 

life of the application is truly optimal and/or best-in-class. 

Assurance for Application Needs 

Offers customers added assurance of the right 

combination of technologies and techniques to achieve 

optimal energy savings for a particular application space. 

Freescale Energy Efficient Solutions mark awarded to the i.MX Applications 

Processor family. 



6 

TM

ARM Cortex A8 

i.MX51 family 

i.MX51 Next Gen family 

• Cortex-A8, 800-1GHz 

• 720p Decode/ D1 Encode 

• OpenGLES 2.0 / VG 1.1 

• C65 

ARM11 

ARM9 


• ARM1136, 532MHz 

• VGA Encode 

• OpenGL ES 1.1 

• C90 


• ARM926, 400MHz 

• D1 Video Enc/Dec 

STMP37xx Next Genfamily 

• ARM926, 266-400MHz 

• Integrated PMIC 

i.MX37 

i.MX35 family 

• ARM1136, 532 MHz 

• Open VG 1.1 

• C90 



• ARM1176, 532MHz 

• HW D1 Decode 

• C65 


• ARM926, 400MHz 

• Security 

• C90 

Next i.MX233 Gen 

• ARM926, 454 MHz 

• Integrated PMIC 

• QVGA-VGA dec 

• C90 

i.MX Processor Roadmap 

Left Edge = early samples 2008 2009 

2010 

7 

i.MX5x Next Gen 

i.MX53 family 

i.MX2x Next Gen family 

Because of an order from the United States International Trade Commission, BGA-packaged product lines and part numbers indicated here currently are 

not available from Freescale for import or sale in the United States prior to September 2010: STMP37xx, product family, i.MX27product family, i.MX25 

product family, i.MX31 product family, i.MX35 product family, i.MX37 product family, i.MX515 product family 

Next i.MX5x Gen 

i.MX6x 

Next i.MX6x Gen 

Platform Shipping 

Platform Sampling 

In Development 

In Concept 

TM

i.MX ARM9 for General Embedded Market 

Feature i.MX27(L) i.MX233 i.MX253 i.MX257 i.MX258 

Target Markets Consumer, Industrial Consumer & Industrial Industrial & Consumer Industrial & Consumer Industrial 

Target 

Segments 

• 

• 

• 

• 

IP Camera 

Media Phones 

Digital Signage 

Medical (Video) 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

PMP, PND 

Audio Accessories 

VoIP 

Smart remotes 

HMI (home 

appliances, etc) 

• 

• 

• 

• 

HMI 

Portable/Tethered 

Printers 

Medical 

Factory 

Automation 

(Ethernet) 

• 

• 

• 

“Smart Touch” HMI 

Factory Automation 

(CAN) 

Barcode Scanners 

• Secure Residential 

Gateway (Smart 

Meters) 

• Point-of-sale 

• Biometrics 

• Secure Devices 

Core ARM926EJ-S ARM926EJ-S ARM926EJ-S ARM926EJ-S ARM926EJ-S 

CPU Speed 400 MHz 454 MHz 400 MHz 400 MHz 400 MHz 

Key Differences 

Package 

• MPEG-4/H.264 

Video Encode / 

Decode 

• CMOS Sensor I/F 

• 32-bit mDDR bus 

0.8mm 473BGA 

0.65mm 404BGA 

Positioning Video acceleration 

10KU 

Suggested 

Disty Resale 

$8.35 - $11.78 

OS Linux, WinCE RTOS 

General 

Availability 

• Integrated power 

management 

• Analog Audio 

• Small packages 

128LQFP 

0.8mm 169BGA 

Integrated power 

management and 

analog audio 

QFP $5.11-$5.88 

BGA $6.03-$6.79 

Linux (Aug09), WinCE 

(Dec09) 

• DDR2 

• Integrated Ethernet 

• Integrated USB 

Phy’s 

• NOR Flash 

i.MX253 + 

• CAN, Smartcard 

• CMOS Sensor I/F 

• Touchscreen 

controller 


not available from Freescale for import or sale in the United States prior to September 2010: i.MX27 Product Family, i.MX25 Product Family 



8 

i.MX257+ 

• Secure key/data 

storage 

• Tamper detection 

• Secure boot 

0.8mm 400BGA 0.8mm 400BGA 0.8mm 400 BGA 

Ethernet, DDR2 

Ethernet, CAN, DDR2, 

Touchscreen controller 

Security 

$6.98-$7.21 $7.78-$8.19 $9.01 

Linux, WinCE, RTOS Linux, WinCE, RTOS Linux, WinCE, RTOS 

Mass Production October 2009 Mass Production Mass Production Mass Production 

TM

► Strong software team spread across Austin and Shanghai 



Freescale i.MX Software Expertise 

► Focus on Linux ® and Windows ® Embedded CE based solutions 

► Enable customers with differentiating silicon capabilities 

► Board support packages (BSP) consisting of kernel optimizations, hardware drivers 

and unit tests in a common i.MX code base 

► Extensive portfolio of optimized multimedia codecs (ARM and Video processing unit 

accelerated) 

► Middleware – multimedia framework plugins, power management, security/DRM, 

graphics (OpenVG/OpenGL-ES), connectivity 

► Comprehensive testing and validation of the platform 

► Broad ecosystem of software partners 

► Well defined support through applications engineering team 

TM



i.MX Software Components 

► A layered approach with components to provide a common s/w stack that enables 

customers to easily migrate across i.MX SoCs and address their target markets 

• Linux BSP (with LTIB and X) and WinCE BSP for all SoCs 

• Linux Ubuntu (Reuse BSP/X and integrate by Canonical) for high-tier (Netbook) 

• Linux Android for mid to high-tier (MID and General embedded) 

► Common BSP’s consisting of hardware drivers, optimizations and unit tests 

► Portfolio of optimized multimedia codecs (ARM and Video processing unit 

accelerated) 

• Focus on top priority codecs in release cycles (maintain codecs portfolio for select 

customers) 

• Gstreamer and OpenMax for Linux 

► Common middleware with reuse from open source frameworks that enable 

integration of proprietary components 

• Graphics: OpenVG/OpenGL-ES support 

• Connectivity: BT and WiFi demos using available drivers 

• Auto: Auto Grade Linux 

TM



i.MX Linux BSP 

►Features 

• Out-of-the-box integrated Linux environment – tools + kernel + drivers 

• Optimized for target platforms 

• Common code base for all i.MX SoCs 

►Packages 

• RedBoot boot loader binaries and source files 

• Patches which add Freescale drivers to a kernel.org kernel 

• Source and patches for a root file system 

• Source code for unit tests of the drivers 

• Linux Target Image Builder (LTIB) 

• Proprietary 3 rd party components in binary code format 

• Pre-built binaries 

• Open source tool chain for ARM9/ARM11/Cortex A8 

• BSP Documentation (reference manual, User’s Guide, release notes) 

TM

Linux 

WinCE 

Compiler 

Debugger/IDE 

C/C++ with ability to have GCC 

compatibility. 

Solution: 

-ARM RVDS; 

-GNU C/C++ 

Partner: 

- Codesourcery GNU 

- Eclipse IDE 

- Codesourcery has validated 

their tools on MX31/35/25/51 

Visual Studio Professional 

Edition 

Standard for WinCE 

development code development. 

Platform Builder 5.0/6.0 

Used to design, create, build, 

test, debug a new WinCE 

operating system image. 

Note: These are the standard 

development tools that are 

required to do WinCE 

development. 

Linux and WinCE development tools 

Debugger Profiler and 

Analysis tools 

Debugger that can 

offer: 

- Kernel and low level 

driver debug 

- Application debug 

Solution: 

-Part of ARM RVDS 

-GDB 

Partner: 

- CodeSourcery G++ 

Part of Visual Studio 

or Platform Builder 

Tool that will be able 

to: 

- Track/monitor 

performance. 

- Perform code 

analysis and 

determine 

where bottlenecks 

are. 

Solution: 

- Part of ARM RVDS 

Part of Visual Studio 

or Platform Builder 


not available from Freescale for import or sale in the United States prior to September 2010: i.MX31 Product Family, i.MX25 Product Family, i.MX35 

Product Family, i.MX51 Product Family 



JTAG Debug Other useful 

tools 

Good target run 

control and trace 

tools to do full debug 

of target CPU. 

Solution: 

-RV-ICE/Trace 

Partner: 

- Macraigor 

Must have a JTAG 

tool that has a driver 

to work with eXDI I or 

2 interface standard 

by Microsoft. 

This allows for use of 

JTAG tools with 

Platform Builder to 

enhance overall 

development/debug. 

Helpful example 

code, drivers, 

libraries to help 

jump start 

development. 

-Simulation 

-Profiling 

-Peripheral 

knowledge 

Part of Visual 

Studio or Platform 

Builder 

TM

Key Features 



i.MX Optimized Multimedia Codecs 

► Comprehensive suite of optimized codecs (~40+ Audio/Video/Image Codecs) 

► Highly optimized software that is coded by Freescale processor experts 

► Consistent application programming interface (API) and frameworks across all software 

packages including OpenMAX support 

► Codec APIs have been optimized from system design perspective and achieve optimal 

system performance along with related middleware wrappers 

► Supplemented with Freescale development tools, sample test streams and documentation 

Codec Software Packages include: 

► Codec libraries with a standard C-callable API 

► Gstreamer and OpenMAX plugins that provide an API layer between the multimedia 

framework and the codec library 

• Gstreamer is LGPL and allows for proprietary codecs integration through dynamic linking 

► Audio/video file containers (parsers) that support popular multimedia content, such as .aac, 

.avi, .asf, .mp3 and .mp4 files 

► Bundle of Freescale audio/video sample test streams 

► Complete documentation, including API documentation, release notes and data sheets 

TM



14 

Codecs Portfolio 

Video Audio Speech Image 

MPEG4 SP/ASP 

Encoder/Decoder * 

H.263 Baseline 


WMV9/VC-1 SP/MP/AP 

Decoder * 

WMA10 Decoder (Std, 

Pro, Lossless) 

Real Video Decoder * AACPlus Enhanced 

Decoder 

H.264 BP/MP 


MPEG2 MP 

Decoder/Encoder * 

G.726 Encoder/Decoder GIF Decoder 

MP3 Encoder/Decoder G.723.1 Encoder/Decoder PNG Decoder 

AAC-LC Decoder AMR-NB Encoder/Decoder BMP Encoder/Decoder 

AMR-WB 

Encoder/Decoder 

WBMP Decoder 

Real Audio 8 Decoder G.711 Encoder/Decoder JPEG Encoder/Decoder * 

SBC Encode 

DivX Decoder * WMA Encode 

Note: * indicates VPU accelerated or s/w codecs 

Note: The table reflects the codecs portfolio that would be offered on i.MX at specific dates 

mentioned in the schedule. It does not reflect immediate availability. 

TM

► i.MX Applications Processor Overview 

• Target markets, product portfolio 

• ARM ® 

9 portfolio comparison 

• Platform support 

► i.MX233 Introduction 

• Target applications, Product Details 

• Development Platform, Enablement 

• System Value 

• Availability 



Today’s Agenda 

TM



Introducing the i.MX233 

The i.MX233 applications processor simplifies development by integrating 

mixed signal IP and provides a cost-efficient, system-on-chip solution to 

maximize performance and extend battery life. 

Simplified Development Cost Efficient 

The i.MX233 processor simplifies 

the development and design 

process by integrating industryleading 

mixed signal IP. 

• Integrated power management, analog 

audio and A/D channels 

• Image processing unit supporting 24-bit 

VGA displays provides rich user 

interfaces. 

• On-chip SDIO controller for wireless 

(WiFi, Bluetooth), memory card, or other 

SDIO connectivity options. 

The unique architecture design of 

the i.MX233 processor enables 

the development of cost efficient 

solutions for a wide range of 

applications. 

• Efficient integration of the core and key 

peripherals enables smaller packages 

and eliminates external components 

• More accessible evaluation with a low 

cost development platform. 

• Linux BSP available along with a 

multimedia codec library. 

Optimized 

System-on-Chip 

With an ARM9 core operating up 

to 454MHz, the i.MX233 

processor is designed to 

maximize performance and 

extend battery life. 

• Integrated power management system 

enables efficient MIPS per application. 

• Clock gating and multiple low power 

modes optimize low power performance. 

• Includes boot from SLC, MLC and 

managed NANDs capability 

• Supports 20-bit BCH error correction to 

improve reliability. 

TM 

Internal Use Only

Consumer 

• Portable Media Players 

• Portable Navigation Devices 

• Graphical Remote Controls 

• Digital Picture Frames 

• eBooks 

• VoIP Handsets 

• Audio Peripherals & Accessories 

• HMI - Home Appliances, Security Panels 

Industrial 

• Simple HMI (factory control, metering) 

• Printers 



i.MX233 Processor – Target Markets 

17 

TM

► Key Features and Advantages 

• 454MHz ARM926EJ-S core 

• Based on Sigmatel IP platform 

• PMU with high efficiency on-chip DC/DC with 

4.2V output, supports Li-Ion batteries 

• LCD Controller with Touchscreen 

• 1.5W Mono speaker amplifier 

• Stereo headphone DAC w/ 99dB SNR & 

Stereo ADC w/ 85 dB SNR with integrated 

amplifiers 

• NAND support – SLC/MLC and managed 

• Hardware BCH (up to 20-bit correction) and 

RS ECC8 for current and future MLC NAND 

support 

• DDR1 Support with integrated 2.5V regulator 

• High speed USB with embedded PHY 

► Package and Temperature 

• 169fpBGA 11x11mm .8mm 

• 128LQFP 14x14mm 

• -10 to +70C (Consumer) 

• -40C to +85C (Industrial) 

128 LQFP 169 BGA 

UART 2 3 

12-bit ADC 2 6 

PWM 3 5 

Availability Oct 09 Oct 09 



i.MX233 Applications Processor 

Standard 

Connectivity 

I 2 C 

SPI x 2 

UART 

Power Management 

DC/DC – 4.2V 

Battery Charger 

12-bit ADC i.MX233 

HS USB Phy 

GPIO 

Audio 

I2S x 2 

S/PDIF Tx 

1.5W Mono 

Speaker Amp 

Stereo ADC/DAC 

with Amp 

Multimedia 

10-bit Video DAC 

PAL/NTSC 

Analog 

TV Encoder 

LD0 x 4 

ARM926EJ-S 

454MHz 

16K I 

Cache 

16K D 

Cache 

Security 

DRM Unique ID OTP AES Key 

128-bit AES SHA-1 Hashing 

Standard System 

Timer x 4 PWM x 5 

Watch Dog SDMA 

System Debug 

ETM SJTAG 

Not available in QFP package 

Ext Memory I/F 

NAND 

BCH 20-bit 

ECC8 

DDR1 

mDDR 

Internal Memory 

32KB SRAM 

64KB ROM 

Ext Storage 

MMC + /SD x 2 

User I/F 

LCD Controller 

Touchscreen 

Scaling 

Alpha Blending 

Rotation 

Color Space 

Conversion 

TM



i.MX233 Package Differences 

Function 128 LQFP 169 BGA 

External Memory Interface (2.5V DDR, 1.8VmDDR) 

•DRAM pins 

•Maximum DRAM capacity supported 

General Purpose Media Interface (GPMI) 

•NAND data width 

•Number of external NANDs supported 

LCD Interface (LCDIF) 

•RGB (DOTCK) mode – “dumb display” 

•VSYNC/WSYNC system mode – “smart display” 

•1 chip enable 

•64MB 

•8-bit data 

•2 dedicated CS#/RDY# pin pairs + 2 

CS#/RDY# pin pairs muxed with I2C, 

PWM2 and LCD_RESET pins 

• 8-bit serial 

• 8-bit, up to 18 bit w/ pin share (muxed 

with NAND interface) 

Mono Speaker Amplifier No Yes 

Serial Audio Interface 

•Interfaces supported 0 2 

ADC 

•Number supported 

•Touchscreen supported 

•2 (or 3 w/o 2.5V DDR) 

•No 

19 

•2 chip enables 

•128MB (64MB for each chip enable) 

•16-bit data 

•4 dedicated CS#/RDY# pin pairs 

• 8-bit serial, Up to 24-bit parallel 

• Up to 18-bit 

UARTs 1 Debug UART, 1 App UART 1 Debug UART, 2 App UARTs 

Synchronous Serial Ports (SSP) 

•SD/MMC/SSP 

•SSP1 – 4-bit data 

•SSP2 – 8-bit data (muxed with NAND 

interface) 

• 6 

• Yes 

Rotary Encoder Muxed with PWM and Debug UART Dedicated 

Real Time Clock (RTC) 24MHz 32kHz and 24MHz 

Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) Channels 3 5 

•SSP1 – 8-bit data 

•SSP2 – 8-bit data (muxed with NAND 

interface) 

TM

Key HW Differences: i.MX25 vs. i.MX233 

Feature i.MX25 i.MX233 

On-chip RAM 128KB 32KB 

Flash Interface MLC/SLC NAND Flash w/ 8-bit RS 

NOR Flash 

DRAM Interface 16-bit DDR2, mDDR, SDRAM 16-bit DDR1, mDDR 

SLC/MLC/Managed NAND Flash w/ 20-bit BCH, 8-bit RS 

Display Processing 1 overlay, alpha blending, panning 8 overlays, alpha blending, scaling, rotation, color space 

conversion 

Integrated TV-Out - Yes 

Analog Audio External Integrated stereo ADC/DAC with amplifiers, Mono 

speaker amp output 

CMOS Sensor Interface Yes - 

10/100 Ethernet Yes - 

Power Management External DC-DC switched converters, 4 linear regulators 

S/PDIF Interface No 1 output 

USB2.0 OTG HS with HS PHY x1,HS Host with FS PHY x1 1 HS port (Host/Device) with PHY 

CAN x2 - 

SIM x2 - 

P-ATA Yes - 

Secure Key Storage Equivalent capabilities Equivalent capabilities 

Tamper Detection Voltage, frequency, temperature, mesh - 

Secure Boot Yes – mechanism differs Yes – mechanism differs 


not available from Freescale for import or sale in the United States prior to September 2010: i.MX25 Product Family 



20 

TM

► ARM926EJ-S Processor (ARM v5TE) 

► Up to 454MHz performance @ 1.55V 

► 16KB I$ + 16KB D$ (4-way setassociative) 

► Low-power 90LP implementation 

► 32KB of On-Chip SRAM (intended for 

application with DRAM) 

► Vectored interrupt controller with 128 fully 

programmable sources and up to 4 levels 

of IRQ nesting. 

► Coresight ETM9 for higher-speed trace 

(DDR data, better compression) 

► Support wait-for-interrupt low-power mode 



i.MX233 CPU Sub-system 

Instruction 

TCM 

Interface 

Instruction 

Cache 

(16 Kbytes) 

MMU 

AMBA AHB 

Interface 

AHB1 

21 

ARM9EJ-S 

Core 

Write 

Buffer 

Control Logic and Bus Interface Unit 

FIQ 

Interrupts 

IRQ 

ARM926EJ-S 

Embedded Trace 

Macrocell (ETM) 

Interface 

VINITHI 

Integrated 

Coprocessor 

Data 

TCM 

Interface 

Data 

Cache 

(16 Kbytes) 

MMU 

AMBA AHB 

Interface 

AHB2 

TM



i.MX233 – Low Power Features/Characteristics 

► Integrated power management system allows for DVFS which provides the most efficient 

MIPS per application 

► Architectural and automated clock gating 

► External memory controller implement five levels of low-power modes (mDDR) 

► Synchronous clocking mode from CPU, bus to memory controller, reduces latency and thus 

MHz/MIPS requirements 

► Auto-slow on bus-clock (HCLK) with HW controlled slow-down/speed-up based on bus activity 

► Wait-for-Interrupt standby mode system power = 1mA (~4mW) 

• CPU clock stopped, wakes up from interrupt 

• Interrupt from press – supported by using a timer loop to check LR ADC status, ~100uA current 

• Supports wake-up from touchscreen 

• Quick power up 

► Power-down (RTC-only) power = 12uA 

• Only RTC active 

• Power up longer 

22 

TM



i.MX233 - Power Management Unit 

►Integration of a DC-DC switching converter and linear regulators that 

provide four output rails 

• Powers digital blocks and components such as system clocks 

• Provides audio power for headphones and analog components 

• Powers I/O peripherals like NAND flash and SD/MMC cards 

• Powers 2.5V DDR1 (1.7V-3.25V) 

• Total programmable system current up to 785mA 

►Power sources 

• Li-Ion batteries (2.9V – 4.2V) 

• Direct power from 5V source (USB, wall power or other source) 

• Internal 4.2V power source generated from 5V source 

►Battery charging capability 

• Allows battery to be fully charged while device is in use 

• Current and voltage sensors allows firmware to monitor the voltage and current 

into the battery to determine “charged” status 

►On-chip silicon speed and temp sensors 

23 

TM



i.MX233 Integrated PMU at a glance 

24 

TM



i.MX233 – Low Resolution A/D (LRADC) 

► 12-bit Low-Resolution ADC, up to 0.5% battery level accuracy 

► 6 physical channels, 6 physical external inputs 

► 8 “virtual” channels can be mapped to any of the 16 channels. 

► Integrated 4-wire touch-screen controller (with wide range of impedance support, 

e.g 200-400 Ohm and 50K Ohm) 

► Integrated temp sensor function (on-die, and external with diode or thermistor) 

► Example configuration: 

• 2 channels for 12X12 button array (or 2 channel for touch screen). 

• 2 channels for internal temp sensor (internal temp sense requires 2 channels) 

• 1 channel for battery 

• 1 channel for VDDIO 

• 1 channel for external temp sense 

• 1 channel for some other function 

25 

TM

►Stereo DAC with 99 dB SNR 

►Stereo ADC with 85 dB SNR 

►Stereo headphone amplifier with short-circuit protection 



i.MX233 – Analog Audio 

►Headphone amplifier with direct drive to eliminate bulky and expensive DCblocking 

capacitors and allows click/pop free operation 

►Mono speaker amplifier providing up to 1.75 W rms output (4 Ω load), 

powered directly by Li-Ion battery or external 4.2V supply 

►Two stereo line inputs 

►Microphone input with pre-amp and bias generator 

26 

TM



i.MX233 – External Memory Controller 

►Support for mDDR1 (1.8V) and DDR1 (2.5V), with all voltages supplied by 

integrated power management unit 

►Up to 150MHz with 16-bit interface 

►4-port with hybrid AHB/AXI mix, allowing for high-bandwidth masters to 

make more efficient requests (internally developed) 

►Internally developed improvements in arbitration options: 

• Timestamp mode with write-priority loop (HW coherency) 

• Port priority mode (highest always wins) 

►Full support of mDDR1 power modes including self-refresh, with clock 

gating and memory controller gating. 

►Hardware assisted on-the-fly frequency changing 

27 

TM

► General-Purpose Media Interface Controller 

• Enables access to media devices that have NAND 

• Supports up to four NAND Flash devices 

• Provides interface to ECC module 

• 3.3V support only 

► Hardware BCH/ECC Interface 



i.MX233 – NAND Support 

• Provides a forward error-correction function to improve the reliability of various 

storage media that may be attached to the i.MX233 

• Reed-Solomon 4/8-bit correction (9-bit parity symbols) 

• BCH Engine with up to 20-bit correction (2-bit increments) with 13-bit parity. 

Programmable NAND page layout for future NAND support 

►NAND Types supported 

• SLC NAND 

• MLC NAND 

• Managed NAND – eMMC 4.2/4.3, LBA 

28 

TM

►Two independent Synchronous Serial Ports (SSP) 

SD/MMC removable cards 

eSD/eMMC/iNAND chips 

SPI control and communication 

Peripheral chips such as Wi-Fi or Bluetooth using SDIO 

Two dedicated DMA channels 

Maximum clock rate of 50 MHz 



29 

i.MX233 – SSP 

TM

TVENC 

+ 

VDAC 

8 x Overlays 

RGB (S1) 

TVE 

NTSC/PAL Encoder 

(digital) 

Video DAC 

(analog) 

To TV Out Pins 

TV-Out block 



Video YUV 

(S0) 

CSC + Scale 

Colorkey / Alpha-Blend 

Rotation 

BT.656 

i.MX233 Peripherals – Display 

PXP Block 

PXP 

Display Out 

(RGB, System, 

BT.656) 

To LCD Pins 

LCDIF Block 

30 

LCDIF 

TM

PiXel Pipeline 

Bi-linear YUV/YCbCr scaling and color 

space conversion, rotation 

Multiple graphic overlays (BITBLT) with 

concurrent alpha blending and color 

keying 

Processes 8x8 blocks, and linked 

commands 

Overlay 

Overlay 

Overlay 

Overlay 

Overlay 

Overlay 

Overlay 

Overlay S1 

RGB 



Y 

U 

V 

Scaler 

CSC 

S0 

i.MX233 Peripherals – PXP 

alpha blending/ 

color key 

31 

4 source image pixel: 

p00, p10, p01, p11 

Ry (1-Ry) 

p00 

p01 Px1 

p11 

Rx (1-Rx) 

S3 

Px0 

P 

1 destination image pixel: 

P, bilinear filter 

p10 

rotation 

TM

Display Controller (LCDIF) 

Up to 24-bit DOTCK, system-mode, 

VSYNC with programmable timings. 

On-the-fly RGB->YCbCr 4:2:2 for 

ITU-R/BT.656 DV interface (with 

interlacing) 

Rich support for RGB formats 

including pixel packing and swizzling. 

128-pixel FIFO provides robustness 

for up to VGA resolution at 60Hz. 

AXI Master for efficiency 

Direct internal connection to TVE 



i.MX233 Peripherals – LCDIF 

LCDIF 

HCLK Domain 

System / VSYNC/ 

DOTCLK LCD 

Interface 

PIXCLK Domain 

AHB 

AHB-AXI 

FBRIC 

AXI 

32 

AXI Master 

ARM Core 

AHB Slave 

APBH 

Master 

AHB 

Shared DMA 

38x128 LFIFO 

38x2 INTFIFO 

38x8 TXFIFO 

APBH 

APB 

AHB 

Master 

DMA 

Request 

SRAM 

APBH 

HW_LCDIF_CTRL and 

_DATA Registers and 

DMA Slave 

Write Data 

To LCD Pins 

AHB-to-APBH 

Bridge 

APBH Ctrl 

Digital Video 

Interface 

24-MHz 

XTAL 

Osc. or 

PLL 

DIV 

HCLK 

DIV 

PIXCLK 

TM

►I 2 C 

EEPROM, Sensors 

DMA controlled with M/S mode up to 400KHz 

►4-Channel 16-Bit Timers with 

Rotary Decoder 

►Five-Channel Pulse Width 

Modulator (PWM) 

►Real-Time Clock 

Options for 24MHz, 32KHz or 32.768KHz 

Storage of “persistent bits” 

Wake from alarm 



i.MX233 Peripherals – Other I/O 

► UARTs 

2 x 3.25Mbps App UARTs 

1 x 115Kbps Debug UART 

► S/PDIF Transmit 

► Dual Serial Audio Interface (SAIF), 

Three Stereo Pairs 

Full-duplex stereo transmit and stereo receive 

operations 

Bluetooth hands-free connection 

I 2 S, left-justified, right-justified, and nonstandard 

formats 

33 

TM



i.MX233 Evaluation Kit (EVK) 

Single Board Development Platform – Price, Performance, Personality 

CPU Debug Peripherals 

•i.MX233 Applications Processor 

(169 BGA) 

•2 x 64MB DDR1 

•2GB NAND FLASH 

•SPI Flash/EEPROM footprints 

•ETM footprint 

•DC/DC Converter components 

•Li-Ion battery connector 

Board 

size = 

5” x 7” 

•Debug Serial Port 

•JTAG 

•Reset, Interrupt, boot switches 

•Debug display/LED’s 

•Power Source 

•4.3” WQVGA Touchscreen LCD Display (addon 

module) 

•SD/MMC Card Slot 

•USB Host/Device 

•2 Application Serial Ports (Default: 1 

Populated, 1 Not Populated) 

•Ethernet supported via SPI header 

•Navigation keys 

•Mic input, headphone output (jack) 

•Line-in jack 

•Speaker Connector 

•Composite TV Out connector footprint 

•3-Axis Accelerometer footprint • 

•Expansion Port for optional Peripheral Card 

34 

TM

Software Description 

Linux BSP 

Available Sept 

09 

Codecs 

Display/Imaging: 

LCD display driver for Samsung 4.3” WQVGA 

Touchscreen 

LCD display driver for 

Image processing (PxP/IPU), TV-out 

Backlight control 



i.MX233 Software Support 

Audo 

Audio playback, Audio output, Audio input via mic, Audio input via line-in, Audio input via FM, Audio output via S/PDIF, 

Memories: 

SLC (inc. boot), MLC (inc. boot), NAND flash, Manage WRITE wear leveling, Manage READ disturbance mitigation, NAND monitoring tool, 

Support 1GB, 2GB and 4GB NANDs, FAT file system on NAND, SD memory card support for 1GB, 2GB, 4GB SD, (SDHC)/MMC 4.2, SD 

2.1/LBA NAND/iNAND 

Bootloader (u-Boot), Power Management, 

Other: 

DVFS with low/high states, 

RTC, High Resolution Timer (HRT), Watchdog 

GPIO, Notification LED 

Keypad, LRADC, Ethernet, 

Boot splash screen,, Redundant Boot 

I2C, SPI, Rotary encoder,, SDIO, 

Crypto via DCP, FTL over UBI 

UID in NAND in a hidden location, Incorruptible SW update mechanism 

USB host, USB device - mass storage, USB device – MTP 

Gnome support 

Video: MP4, AVI (H.264 and MPEG4) 

Audio: WMA, AAC, MP3 with codec protection 

*WinCE BSP available at end of year 

35 

TM



36 

i.MX233 Partners 

Company Type Contact URL Product 

Allgo Systems H/W Aji Anirudhan - aji@allgosystems.com www.allgosystems.com Wireless Media 

Player Reference 

Design 

Amax Technology, Ltd. H/W 

and 

S/W 

Foxda Technology, 

Ltd. 

Honmax Technology, 

Ltd. 

H/W, 

S/W 

H/W, 

S/W 

Icytecture H/W, 

S/W 

Billy Yeung, VP of Sales and Marketing Division - 

billy@amaxhk.com 

Sunny Chan, Managing Director - 

sunny.chan@foxda.com.hk 

Alan W.L. Hung, Director - 

alanhung@honmax.com.hk 

Mentor Graphics S/W Paul Staudacher - 

pstaudacher@embeddedalley.com 

New Power 

Technology 

H/W, 

S/W 

Perception Digital H/W, 

S/W 

Ruizhi H/W, 

S/W 

Shenzhen Morn-Star 

Technology Co., Ltd. 

H/W, 

S/W 

www.amaxhk.com ODM 

www.foxda.com ODM 

www.honmax.com.hk IDH 

Boris Bobrov - boris@icytecture.com www.icytecture.com IDH 

www.embeddedalley.com Linux BSP – 

customization 

Ricky Lui, Manager - ricky@newpowertech.com.hk IDH 

Venus Wong, Senior Marketing Manager - 

venuswong@perceptiondigital.com 

Mr. Li Qiang, General Manager - 

li_qiang70@163.com 

Brian Kim, General Manager - brian@mornstar.com 

www.perceptiondigital.com IDH 

www.xinruizhi.com IDH 

www.morn-star.com IDH 

TM

Two board design 

• Main board contains the CPU, 

memory, FM, USB and Wi-Fi – 

3” x 3” 

• Daughter board with additional 

connectors, Keypad/iPod docking 

–4”x 6” 

• Main board can work 

independently depending upon 

the end customer application 

Business Model 

• Licensed from Allgo 

• Support further customizations 

Deliverables 

• Schematics, Gerber files 

• Firmware 

• Support to productize the design 

Contact AllGo for Demo, Design, 

Support 

• Aji Anirudhan - 

aji@allgosystems.com 



Reference Design – Wireless Media Player 

NAND Flash 

DDR1 

IR Interface 

for remote control 

Apple 

Authentication 

chip 

Internet Radio, Pandora, Local PC 

Ethernet 

Code 

Protection 

Chip 

WLAN 

Module 

(802.11 b/g) 

i.MX233 

Keypad, 

Rotary 

www.allgosystems.com/i.MX233%20Reference%20Design.htm 

37 

Audio 

Amplifier 

SDCARD 

IPOD over USB / 

UART 

USB Stick 

LINE - IN 

LCD Display with 

Touch Screen 

Product features 

• Stream audio content from internet 

• Stream audio/video content from a PC 

• Play audio/video from iPod, USB stick or SD card 

• Display slideshow of pictures from PC or internet based service 

FM 

TM

► Single-chip solution 

► All analog functions are integrated 

• Audio CODEC 

• Headphone driver 

• Power Management 

• Battery charger 

• HS USB + PHY 

• 12 bit A/D 

• Mono Speaker Amp 

► Direct boot from MLC NAND 

► LCD Controller (RGB interface) and touchscreen 



Freescale’s i.MX233 Value 

► Pixel Pipeline (PXP) handles post display frame pre-processing in hardware with minimal 

memory overhead 

38 

TM

$? 

LCD Touch panel 

X LCD Controller, 

Touchscreen 

10/12-bit ADC 

X Battery 

Line-In/FM-In 

$1.75 



i.MX233 System Block Diagram Example 

PXP 

64MB 

DDR1 

Freescale 

NAND 

MLC 

i.MX233 

ADCARM9 

- 454MHz 

169BGA 11*11 

PMU Charger 

$0.60 

X X 

Battery 

Charger 

LDO 

Switching 

regulators, 

$1.70 (vs mDDR) 

Battery 

Li-ion Polymer 

(4 LDOs) 

Audio 

Codec 

Speaker 

Amp 

USB PHY 

X USB PHY 

$0.42 

39 

$0.60 

X Audio Codec 

X 

Speaker 

Amplifier 

$0.40 

Audio 

out 

TM



i.MX233 Availability 

Part Number Description MSRP Availability 

MCIMX233DJM4B i.MX233, Consumer version, 169 BGA 

MCIMX233CJM4B i.MX233, Industrial version, 169 BGA 

MCIMX233DAG4B i.MX233, Consumer version, 128 LQFP 

MCIMX233CAG4B i.MX233 Industrial version, 128 LQFP 

10KU Resale - 

$6.03 

10KU Resale - 

$6.79 

10KU Resale - 

$5.11 

10KU Resale - 

$5.88 

MCIMX23LEVKJ i.MX233 Evaluation Kit with Linux BSP $399 Oct 2009 

MCIMX23WEVKJ i.MX233 Evaluation Kit with WinCE BSP $399 Jan 2010 

MCIMX23LCD LCD module (4.3” WQVGA Touchscreen) $199 Oct 2009 

Samples Oct 2009 

Production Nov 2009 

Samples Oct 2009 

Production Nov 2009 

Production Oct 2009 

Production Oct 2009 

TM



41 

Summary 

Freescale expands its ARM9 i.MX portfolio by 

launching the first Sigmatel architecture based 

device combined with Freescale’s Linux BSP and 

codecs. 

i.MX233 simplifies the development and design 

process by integrating industry leading mixed signal 

analog IP. 

i.MX233’s unique architecture design enables the 

development of cost efficient solutions for a wide 

range of applications. 

Designed to maximize performance and extend 

battery life. 

Helps reduce cost and complexity. 

TM

New Product Update

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?