Freescale announced the Xtrinsic Sensor Platform, a 12-axis sensor development reference platform for Windows 8.
This 12-axis sensor platform includes several sensors by Freescale and other companies:
- Xtrinsic MMA8451Q 3-axis accelerometer
- Xtrinsic MAG3110 3-axis magnetometer
- Xtrinsic MPL3115A2 precision altimeter, pressure, and temperature sensor
- An analog ambient light sensor
- A selection of 3D gyroscopes are also supported
This platform is powered by Freescale ColdFire+ MCF51JU128VHS MCU which combines, configures and processes sensor data with Freescale sensor fusion software to match the requirements of Windows 8/RT. Xtrinic sensor platform communicates with the host device via USB. It does not requires extra drivers as it uses standard HID drivers.
You can watch the video below which is an introduction (including some technical details) and demo of the system.
Strangely, I could not find a similar Freescale 12-axis reference design for Android or Linux, and I’m not sure why they would limit this hardware to only support one OS, especially they already have Android and Linux driver for the components (accelerometer, magnetometer…) part of this development kit.
Xtrinsic Sensor platform will be available in Q3 2012. You may find further information on Freescale Xtrinsic sensor platform for Windows 8 page. The platform is currently demonstrated at Computex, in Taipei, Taiwan.
Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.
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Freescale is pursuing a wide variety of solutions for all platforms. Due to Microsoft’s requirement for a solution based on a secondary MCU and USB connectivity (for Intel processors) this type of specific solution took priority. While we cannot provided specific release dates, we can say that we are committed to the sensor hub methodology and will provide industry leading solutions based on both increasing levels of sensor integration (see the recent FXOS8700CQ 6-axis Xtrinsic sensor that was announced: http://www.freescale.com/FXOS8700CQ) and software support. This 12-axis Xtrinsic Sensor Platform for Windows 8 is expected to be the start of this trend.