Thread: Freescale combines CPU and electronic ink

Freescale, a maker of CPU (it's the old branch dedicated processors from Motorola) has announced a chip dedicated to electronic books. Produced in partnership with E Ink, it actually incorporates a controller designed for video screens and a processor eink series of Freescale i.MX, all in the same chip (SOC System On a Chip).

The controller Vizplex is used by the majority of books and electronic chips are actually Freescale ARM processors, also known as the DragonBall. Sony, one of the largest sellers of electronic books in the world already uses chips Vizplex and DragonBall processors in its eBooks. According to Freescale, the SoC is expected to offer less expensive products (must have 200 € for an eBook than 6 inches) and especially to allow integration of such solutions in new areas, such as a secondary display on a laptop.

In practice, eink screens still suffer from a problem of reactivity, which makes them useful for any use other than reading, but they excel in the latter area (even if the tactile versions, which use an overlay for managing fingers, have problems of contrast).