P&E continues to expand on its line of all-in-one interfaces with the launch of the high-speed USB Multilink Universal FX. Like P&E's original all-in-one interface, the USB Multilink Universal, the new USB Multilink Universal FX supports a varirety of Freescale MCUs, including: Kinetis, Qorivva 55xx/56xx, ColdFire V1/ColdFire+ V1, ColdFire V2-4, HC(S)12(X), HCS08, RS08, Power Architecture PX Series, and DSC. However the new FX interface can download at speeds up to 10x faster and can provide power to the target processor, among other enhancements.

The new USB Multilink Universal FX is natively supported by recent versions of CodeWarrior®, current P&E software applications, and toolchains from many Freescale partners including Keil and Cosmic.

More information about the USB Multilink Universal FX is available on the product page at P&E's website.

    P&E presented its new USB Multilink Universal, an ALL-IN-ONE development interface, at the recent Freescale Momentum conference. The revolutionary ALL-IN-ONE interface concept was very well received by conference attendees. USB Multilink Universal is a single interface that supports Freescale’s HCS08, RS08, HC(S)12(X), Coldfire V1/+V1/V2-V4, Qorivva MPC55xx/56xx, and Kinetis ARM microcontrollers. Thus, it eliminates the need to purchase different hardware interfaces to support specific devices that belong to those MCU families.

    P&E also previewed two upcoming products: the USB Multilink Universal FX and Tracelink. The USB Multilink Universal FX is an enhanced, very high-speed version of the USB Multilink Universal. The Tracelink interface will support trace capture for 32 bit Freescale device architectures.

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P&E has released its groundbreaking new USB Multilink Universal all-in-one interface. The USB Multilink Universal is an economical, reliable USB-to-target interface that uses multiple headers to support Freescale's HCS08, RS08, HC(S)12(X), ColdFire V1/+V1 & V2-4, Qorivva MPC55xx/56xx, and Kinetis ARM microcontrollers. The USB Multilink Universal includes multiple ribbon cables to allow connections to the various supported devices. The USB Multilink Universal's case simply flips open for easy access to the headers.

It is supported by P&E software, in addition to Freescale's Codewarrior and software from other third party vendors. A configuration utility is available on P&E's website which allows configuration of the USB Multilink Universal for use with older software packages.

P&E is also developing the USB Multilink Universal FX, an enhanced, high-speed version of the USB Multilink Universal interface. 

Freescale offers certain development boards with an integrated debug circuit based on Open Source BDM. The Open Source BDM circuit design is an open source, community-driven design. It has been published on Freescale's website, and full documentation can be found in the Community Forums.

P&E Microcomputer Systems has released a free utility that allows the user to upgrade the firmware on the current JM60-OSBDM development board design. The utility may be downloaded at: www.pemicro.com/osbdm

P&E's USB Multilink (part# USB-ML-12E) hardware interface is required to perform this firmware update.  The process of updating the firmware via this utility is very simple. Please follow these steps:

1. Plug the USB Multilink into the 6-pin BDM header for a JM60 device in the OSBDM design.

2. Click the "Select" button to browse for the firmware file that you would like to download to the OSBDM design.

3. Click the "Update Firmware" button to complete the firmware update.

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This video provides a brief comparison of the features of two popular P&E hardware interfaces, the USB BDM Multilink and the Cyclone PRO. This overview is intended to help users determine which interface is best suited for their project. More information about each interface can be found on the USB-ML-12 and Cyclone PRO product pages.

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