Motorola Advanced Engine Management Systems to Drive High-Performance Automotive Control Systems

AUSTIN, Texas, Nov. 26 -- Motorola's MPC500 Family of 32-bit microcontrollers, the most highly integrated in the industry, has been selected by Italian Magneti Marelli Powertrain for use in its direct diesel injection (DDI) engine control units. The Fiat-owned Magneti Marelli Powertrain is an international leader in the design and production of high-tech components and systems for the automotive industry. Motorola is the #1 semiconductor supplier to the global automotive industry. Each company brings to the relationship an expertise that, when combined, will serve as the foundation for some of the most advanced engine management systems on the market.

Marelli's customer base is diverse, advanced, and spans the globe, ranging from the highest performance manufacturers in Europe and South America, to the emerging market in China. With this latest design selection, Motorola will supply 32-bit microcontrollers (MCUs) for electronic systems that will be in volume production beginning in model year 2003 vehicles and continuing into the next generation with the MPC5500 Family of MCUs.

``We've experienced first hand the performance and reliability of these components through our longstanding use of Motorola products. With this latest cooperation, we will be able to deliver some of the industry's most advanced powertrain management systems based on their highly sophisticated 32-bit microcontrollers,'' said Dr. Daniele Pecchini, Chief Operating Officer of Magneti Marelli Powertrain.

``The Motorola vision of the future systems architecture using this new MPC5500 family of 32-bit microcontrollers will permit us to plan an efficient product range to tailor the needs of different application levels, ranging from Gasoline engine, Direct Diesel Injection and future powertrain systems,'' said Dr. Giovanni Gaviani, R&D manager of Magneti Marelli Powertrain.

Semiconductor content per vehicle continues to grow at an astounding rate - 20 percent annually from 1999 to 2000, according to Gartner Dataquest. Several factors are driving this growth including increasingly stringent legislative requirements for reduced emissions and increased fuel economy. Direct injection systems, like those built by Magneti Marelli, will help car manufacturers meet these legislated standards.

``We're pleased Magneti Marelli has chosen our MPC500 Family for Direct Diesel Injection and to develop future Powertrain control systems based on the MPC5500. We've worked closely with Marelli for more than ten years, developing some of the most advanced electronic systems in the industry,'' said Dr. Franz Fink, general manager of Motorola's 32-Bit Embedded Controller Division. ``By working closely with customers like Marelli from the earliest stages of their design concepts, we're able to develop powerful microcontrollers that meet real business needs.''

Motorola's MPC500 Microcontrollers

Since its introduction in 1998 with the award-winning MPC555*, the MPC500 Family has rapidly gained acceptance throughout North America, Europe and Japan as an industry standard which is the leading microcontroller architecture for automotive powertrain control applications. Each device in the growing family features a 32-bit RISC core that is compliant with the PowerPC instruction set architecture. Computational abilities are increased with a floating point unit that is standard on all the MPC500 Family of devices, providing the high performance and flexibility embedded system design engineers need to tackle complex control functions.

The MPC500 Family offers a variety of memory size options and I/O peripherals, such as time processor units, controller area network (CAN) interface modules and queued analog-to-digital converters, among others. The MPC500 family also includes devices with the latest code compression technology to allow internal memory to be expanded by up to 50 percent, addressing the increased code sizes needed for advanced powertrain systems without increasing the size of the MCU device.

With the new MPC5500 Family, announced in October 2001, Motorola provides a direct migration path, addressing future OEM requirements for automotive and industrial applications and assuring the long-term sustainability of customers' products that are based on existing MPC500 devices. The new MPC5500 Family, which is expected to be available in 2003, will continue the legacy of performance and integration set forth by its legendary predecessors. This family extension is expected to enable even more advanced applications such as electronically controlled valve systems and camshafts and electromechanical braking, as well as electric and gasoline engine control functions integrated into a single engine control module for hybrid vehicles.

As with all Motorola microcontroller and microprocessor lines, a comprehensive suite of hardware and software development tools is available for the MPC500 Family to help simplify and shorten customers' development cycles.

About Magneti Marelli

The Fiat owned Magneti Marelli Companies are international leaders in the design and production of high-tech components and systems for the automotive industry. Magneti Marelli Powertrain is involved in design and production of components and systems for engine control management (gasoline and diesel), exhaust systems and semi automatic transmission. Magneti Marelli Powertrain is the #3 automotive electronics supplier in Europe and #1 in South America for gasoline engine control; sales in 2000 were 1.3 billion Euros.

With three R&D Centers in Europe and North America and 12 Application centers and 16 Plants in 5 continents (Europe, US, Brazil, South Africa and China), Marelli supplies the world's major car manufacturers such as BMW, Citroen -- Peugeot, Daimler Chrysler, Fiat-GM, Renault-Nissan, Volkswagen.

About Motorola

As the world's #1 producer of embedded processors, Motorola's Semiconductor Products Sector creates DigitalDNA(tm) system-on-chip solutions for a connected world. Our strong focus on communications and networking enables customers to develop smarter, simpler, safer and synchronized products for the person, work team, home and automobile. Motorola's worldwide semiconductor sales were $7.9 billion (USD) in 2000. http://www.motorola.com/semiconductors .

Motorola, Inc.is a global leader in providing integrated communications and embedded electronic solutions. Sales in 2000 were $37.6 billion. For more information: http://www.motorola.com .

Motorola was the first semiconductor supplier to be recognized for quality, cost-efficiency, and innovative technology when it won the PACE award for the MPC555 in 1998. MOTOROLA and the Stylized M Logo are registered in the US Patent & Trademark Office. All other product or service names are the property of their respective owners.