
Overview
As the newest member of Freescale’s i.MX
family of applications processors, the i.MX21 is
your key to robust multimedia applications, with
higher levels of video and graphics capabilities,
plug-and-play connectivity and added power
management features than ever before offered
by this family.
Based on ARM
core technology and designed
for use in smartphones, wireless PDAs, mobile
entertainment and many other mobile wireless
applications, Freescale’s i.MXL, i.MX1, and now,
the i.MX21 are engineered to offer Smart
Speed—low power consumption with MHz
performance to spare, and a high degree of
integration to reduce your design time
significantly. For example, the i.MX21 offers
CIF 30 fps video encode and decode, sending
an e-mail message while playing an MP3 or
videoconferencing at 15 fps with a 35 percent
to 65 percent reduction in power consumption.*
The i.MX21 multimedia applications processor
provides an exceptional video experience via
special video decode/encode features and the
ultimate 2-D/3-D experience, thanks to a bus
master interface (BMI) to external graphics
chips. USB On-The-Go (USB-OTG) offers
plug-and-play connectivity. Additionally, i.MX21
provides minimized battery drain, thanks to
smart power management features.
The i.MX Family supports a broad
range of platforms such as those based
on the Microsoft
Windows
CE,
Palm OS
, Symbian OS and Linux
operating systems.
The i.MX family of applications processors
is part of Freescale’s groundbreaking
i.250 and i.300 Innovative Convergence
platforms: Silicon-to-software solutions to
help designers get to market fast with
2.5G and 3G wireless products.
Freescale already offers total smartphone
reference platforms with the i.MX1 and
i.MXL, which leverages its proven
experience in wireless mobile devices and
helps shorten time-to-market for the next
generation of mobile devices.
The i.MX21 helps you harness the power
of wireless, mobile multimedia and the
Internet as never before.
Connectivity
CPU Complex
ARM926 CPU
Smart Speed Switch (MAX)
I-Cache
Internal Control
D-Cache
Bus Control
MMU
Memory Control
Internal
External
2 x CSPI
2 x SSI
Audio Mux
Expansion
2 x MMC/SD
PCMCIA/CF
Human Interface
Keypad
Enhanced
Multimedia Accelerator
(eMMA)
Pre- and Post-
Processing
Video Accelerator
Multimedia Interface
Camera Interface
I
2
C
4 x UARTs
IrDA
USB OTG/Host
1-Wire
System Control
JTAG/Multi-ICE
Bootstrap
Clock Management
Memory Interface
SDRAMC
EIM/BMI
NANDF Controller
Standard System I/O
3 x Timers
PWM
WD Timer
RTC
GPIO
eDMA
SLCD Controller
i.MX21 APPLICATIONS PROCESSOR BLOCK DIAGRAM
i.MX21 Processor
Applications Processors
*Improvement over i.MX1