The S5P6440 application processor from Samsung Electronics offers a low-power, high-performance, cost-effective solution for consumer electronics such as personal navigation devices (PNDs), according to the company (see the figure). It was designed using Samsung’s advanced 45-nm low-power CMOS process technology.

The processor is based on an ARM1176 CPU core that runs at 533 or 667 MHz. The CPU core and all on-chip hardware accelerators and peripheral interfaces are connected through a 64-bit AXI bus running at 166 MHz, allowing ample I/O bandwidth for handling multiprocessing requirements in real-life applications.

Also, the S5P6440’s 2D graphics acceleration hardware complies with the OpenVG application programming interface (API) standard, which enables advanced graphics functions such as alpha blending for transparency effects, anti-aliasing for sharper graphics, and vector graphics support for scaling without loss of image quality for a vivid graphical user interface.

To lower the system bill of materials (BOM) and ease design complexity, the S5P6440 incorporates various interface hardware intellectual property (IP). Its advanced NAND error correction hardware supports current and next-generation multi-level cell (MLC) NAND flash devices, which offer higher storage density at a lower cost. Also, its integrated DRAM memory controller supports mobile DDR and DDR2 memory chips.

An integrated mobile industry processor interface (MIPI) display serial interface (DSI) supports advanced graphics and display capabilities at low power. It reduces the complexity of the display interface by reducing the number of pins, benefiting simplicity and cost. Also, its differential signal substantially reduces electromagnetic-interference (EMI) issues.

The S5P6440 supports all major high-level operation systems, including WinCE and Linux, enabling OEMs to differentiate their products through a rich and easy to use customizable user interface and a robust, flexible application architecture. It comes in a 13- by 13-mm fine-pitch ball-grid array (FBGA) package with a ball pitch of 0.65 mm. Sampling now, volume shipments are scheduled for the third quarter of 2009.

Samsung Electronics