Freescale kicks off new Make It Challenge featuring Kinetis microcontrollers

As first Make It Challenge concludes at FTF, Freescale invites engineers to develop innovative embedded system designs using Kinetis MCUs for a chance to win cash prizes

SAN ANTONIO--(EON: Enhanced Online News)--On the final evening of the Freescale Technology Forum, Freescale Semiconductor (NYSE: FSL) announced the results of its on-site Make It Challenge. Judges Joe Grand, Heather Knight and Anton Olsen selected an eHealth remote monitoring system design developed by Sam Skalicky, Daniel Liu and Daniel Cheung as the grand prize winner. (For a full list of track winners and descriptions of the winning designs, visit www.freescale.com/MakeItChallenge.)

“This Make It Challenge is a great opportunity for talented engineers to learn more about our Kinetis MCU families, and we’re looking forward to seeing the innovative designs they’ll submit.”

To continue encouraging design innovation, Freescale today announced the Make It Challenge featuring Kinetis MCUs (“Challenge”), which offers eligible contestants an opportunity to develop an innovative embedded application design using Freescale Kinetis product families for the chance to win up to $11,000 (USD) in cash prizes.

“We’re challenging the industry to get its creative energies flowing with this design contest,” said Geoff Lees, vice president of Freescale’s Industrial & Multi-Market MCU business. “This Make It Challenge is a great opportunity for talented engineers to learn more about our Kinetis MCU families, and we’re looking forward to seeing the innovative designs they’ll submit.”

Since its industry-first introduction at FTF in June 2010, the Kinetis MCU portfolio built on the ARM^® Cortex™-M4 core has generated tremendous momentum and quickly established itself as a leader in the competitive market for ARM-based devices. In less than a year, Freescale has brought to market an extensive portfolio of pin-, peripheral- and software-compatible Kinetis MCU families with cutting-edge low power and mixed-signal innovation. The portfolio includes numerous human-machine interface (HMI), connectivity, safety and security peripherals, as well as the support of an expansive Freescale and third-party ecosystem.

About the Make It Challenge: Kinetis MCUs

To be eligible to participate in the Freescale Make It Challenge featuring Kinetis MCUs, contestants must first complete the Challenge registration form and submit it to Freescale online or by facsimile transmission, courier, express delivery or U.S. mail.

The Challenge consists of several rounds, which include taking an online quiz about the Kinetis MCU families, submitting a design paper proposing the entry, building a prototype, and submitting a video to explain the design and showing the benefits of the working prototype. Contestants are offered significant discounts on hardware tools and a time-bound version of the CodeWarrior Development Studio for Microcontrollers v10.1 Professional Edition (please see contest rules for details). Contestants must complete the requirements for each round to be eligible to proceed to the next round.

Freescale will announce 10 semifinalists during the week of Aug. 15 and award each of them a $1,000 cash prize to build a working prototype of their design. Registered attendees at the ARM Technology conference, Oct. 25-27, 2011, at the Santa Clara (Calif.) Convention Center, will vote on videos provided by the semifinalist contestants to explain their designs. The three semifinalist contestants whose videos receive the highest number of votes will become the three finalist contestants and will visit Freescale headquarters in Austin, Texas, to meet with Kinetis MCU product experts and demonstrate their working prototypes.

Freescale will formally announce the first-, second- and third-place winners on Nov. 21, 2011, and, in addition to their cash prizes, they will receive complimentary registration to attend FTF Americas in June 2012. The first-place winner will receive a $10,000 cash prize, second place will receive $5,000 and third place will receive $2,000.

One-stop-shop enablement offering

All Kinetis MCU families come with a powerful suite of software and tools, including Freescale’s complimentary, full-featured MQX™ real-time operating system with integrated Ethernet and USB stacks, as well as support for low/no-cost Graphic LCD and Encryption plug-ins. Also bundled with Kinetis MCUs is the Eclipse™-based CodeWarrior 10.1 integrated development environment (IDE) with Processor Expert – providing a visual, automated framework to accelerate the development of complex embedded applications. Freescale continues to enable rapid evaluation and hardware prototyping with Kinetis Tower System modules and a growing range of peripheral modules, including Wi-Fi, sensing and precision analog. Kinetis MCUs are also supported by the expansive ARM ecosystem, including development tools from IAR Systems, Keil, Green Hills Software, Segger and CodeSourcery.

For more information and official rules and entry forms for the Make It Challenge featuring Kinetis MCUs, visit www.freescale.com/KinetisChallenge.

About the Freescale Technology Forum

Created to drive innovation and collaboration, the Freescale Technology Forum (FTF) has become the developer event of the year for the embedded systems industry. The Forum has drawn more than 40,000 attendees at FTF events worldwide since its inception in 2005. Our annual flagship event, FTF Americas, will take place June 20-23, 2011, in its new location in San Antonio, Texas.

About Freescale Semiconductor

Freescale Semiconductor (NYSE:FSL) is a global leader in the design and manufacture of embedded semiconductors for the automotive, consumer, industrial and networking markets. The company is based in Austin, Texas, and has design, research and development, manufacturing and sales operations around the world. www.freescale.com

Freescale and the Freescale logo are trademarks of Freescale Semiconductor, Inc., Reg. U.S. Pat. & Tm. Off. Kinetis, is a trademark of Freescale Semiconductor, Inc. All other product or service names are the property of their respective owners. ARM is the registered trademark of ARM Limited. ARM Cortex-M4 is the trademark of ARM Limited. © 2011 Freescale Semiconductor, Inc.