Centrality’s Atlas Chip Shoulders Six

Semiconductor maker Centrality Communications Thursday introduced two new chips that combine six different controllers all on a single die.

The Santa Clara, Calif.-based firm said its new Atlas processor family includes a 16-channel GPS baseband, Bluetooth baseband, Digital Camera, LCD controller, NAND Flash bootloader, and a parallel DSP core. The company said the processors are targeted for GPS-enabled handsets, PDAs, and navigation/telematics systems in cars.

The company is offering two versions of the Atlas: Type-M (mobile applications with commercial rating) and Type-A (automotive applications with industrial rating).

The chips are dual-core ARM9/DSP with programmable supply voltage and clock rate.

Additional peripherals such as Secure Digital (SD)/MMC, USB, Compact Flash/PCMCIA, SmartMedia and IrDA are included. The processors also have direct ATAPI/IDE Interface for DVD-ROM and Hard Drives.

Industrial and commercial versions of the chip are available. The processor is currently available for customer evaluation. Volume production of the Atlas is scheduled for late Q2 2003.

In addition, Santa Clara, Calif.-based Centrality has created the Atlas Customer Evaluation (ACE) development and reference platforms. The ACE development boards include hardware, software, and debugging/diagnostic tools to evaluate the Atlas and develop applications on the Atlas processor platform.

Centrality’s ACE development board offers a full Board Support Package including all relevant kernel, drivers, and sample code for WinCE 4.2. Fully ported OEM adaptation kits will include Microsoft Windows Automotive 4.2, Pocket PC 2003, and Smartphone 2003.