Freescale’s MC13260 two-way radio chip

Freescale’s MC13260 System-on-chip two-way radio is one chip to watch for. Now in the “introduction pending” stage and highlighted in this video from the recent FTF 2011 conference, it promises to be a one chip analog/digital radio solution.

Preliminary design specs show RF coverage from 60-960 MHz, comprehensive digital radio mode coverage including DMR, dPMR, P25 and Tetra, dual mode analog FM and digital voice/data, and ‘Talk around the network’ capability for cellular applications. The MC13260 includes an ARM926EJ-STM MCU operating at clock speeds up to 150 MHz, a modem processor (software-defined radio) operating at clock speeds up to 100 MHz, 640 Kbytes of integrated RAM, MCU peripherals to support control and monitoring functions and onboard DAC and ADC. The chip is a full-speed USB device with Integrated PHY. The chip supply voltage is 2.775V with on-chip LDO voltage regulators.

This looks like a RF hackers dream chip.

Packaging will be a 104 pin dual row laminate QFN making it somewhat of a challenge to work with. We can only imagine what the price will be, but the early specs sure make it look interesting.