I.MX alternatives?

[filssavi]

Hi i'min the proces of choosing which platform to use for a future product that will use embedded Linux for HMI (no IOT bullcrap BTW), a naturalmente choice for the application processor (AP) would have been NXP/freescale I.MX line, but since they have been bought by Qualcomm I fear that they will be discontinuing the whole line

What are other options for an AP with datasheet (no broadcomm) that i can get my hands on in human quantities?

[Kalvin]

Have you checked NXP product longevity statement:
http://www.nxp.com/about/about-nxp/technology-leadership/product-longevity:PRDCT_LONGEVITY_HM

The i.mx6 line can be found here:
http://www.nxp.com/about/about-nxp/technology-leadership/product-longevity/product-longevity-nxp-formerly-freescale-products:FSL-PRODUCT-LONGEVITY

[ehughes]

Have you checked NXP product longevity statement:
http://www.nxp.com/about/about-nxp/technology-leadership/product-longevity:PRDCT_LONGEVITY_HM

The i.mx6 line can be found here:
http://www.nxp.com/about/about-nxp/technology-leadership/product-longevity/product-longevity-nxp-formerly-freescale-products:FSL-PRODUCT-LONGEVITY

I have used Freescale parts forever because of the product longevity program.   Here is the question...   When Qualcomm acquires NXP,  are they legally required to support the program?

My cynical side said the day the contract is signed,   all of the part information will be wiped from the website and you will be required to sign an NDA and awritten commitment to buy 100k units.

[filssavi]

My cynical side said the day the contract is signed,   all of the part information will be wiped from the website and you will be required to sign an NDA and awritten commitment to buy 100k units.

That is my exact same fear, IANAL but the long term support parts are just something a company carties on producing because they are needed from customer, there is no law preventing you to screw over your oen customer

Now since NXP is selling to the public they need to play the good guy and have long term support ed parts

Now enters qualcomm, sellinng to the general public fir them is just an annoyance they could not care less about, so they will exit that market as fast as possible, in in doing so they screw the designers well tough luck, i mean qualcomm is undisputed leader in smartphone cpu's, com interfaces and others. Their customers have MOQ in the milions if not bilions they will shurely make up for a couple imx's here and there

[hans]

Depends on the contracts I suppose.

E.g. you can still get support for Windows XP as a government or defense, but not as a consumer. Because the former 2 are paying for it.

I think Qualcomm would completely destroy NXP's reputation and customer base if they were to cut on longevity stands. LPC chips are often used in industrial and automotive applications, where a redesign could be done 'never' or once every 10+ years.

Must say I also have had that cynical side talking to me. Future will tell.

[filssavi]

I will stay with Samsung chips. Their ARM9 chips are still available till this day at reasonable price. You can still get S3C2440 S3C6410 and similar pre-Cortex chips now.

They are marked as EOL so i'd like not to use them in a new design, and even then no public datasheet available

[nctnico]

IMHO Samsung SoCs are even a worse choice due to lack of support. I'd go for the iMX SoCs because I don't believe Qualcom will screw things up so bad they kill what they spend 47 billion on. They are about the only choice if you need a SoC for low volume and good support.

[nctnico]

Also, many Chinese and Korean embedded Linux engineers start their journey from Samsung SoC and many products are being developed, so there is less likely you will run into an issue which has never been discovered and solved.

From my own experience: Freescale's iMX does that for the 'Western' market and I managed to find a solution on their forum for every issue I ran into. I have looked into the Samsung SoCs before but documentation and information is hard to get over here. I guess there is a natural divide in the market.