NXP Semiconductors T4240NXN7PQB

Overview

T4240NXN7PQB from NXP Semiconductors (formerly Freescale) is a 24-thread, 12-core Power Architecture® e6500-based multicore processor targeting high-throughput control-and-data-plane consolidation in networking and telecom infrastructure. It operates at up to 1.8 GHz, integrates dual Frame Managers (FMAN) supporting up to 16 × 1 GbE + 4 × 10 GbE MACs, and delivers 129,600 DMIPS aggregate performance with hardware-accelerated cryptography (SEC 5.0), regex (PME 2.1), and compression/decompression (DCE 1.0). It is deployed in intelligent NICs, NFV platforms, and ATCA-based services blades.

For engineers reviewing the T4240NXN7PQB datasheet, T4240NXN7PQB pinout, T4240NXN7PQB application, or T4240NXN7PQB equivalent, key selection considerations include its 1932-pin FC-PBGA package, triple DDR3/3L memory controllers (1867 MT/s, ECC), CoreNet coherency fabric bandwidth (1.46 Tbps read), DPAA 1.1 acceleration throughput (50 Gbps packet parsing), and hardware virtualization support including hypervisor privilege level and IOMMU-based DMA protection.

Technical Context

The T4240NXN7PQB implements three clusters of four dual-threaded e6500 cores sharing 2 MB L2 cache each (6 MB total), with AltiVec SIMD units per core and hierarchical cache intervention across clusters via CoreNet fabric. Its DPAA 1.1 infrastructure includes FMAN 1.1 for header parsing/classification, QMAN 1.1 for multilevel scheduling, BMAN 1.1 for buffer management, and RMAN 1.0 for chip-to-chip RapidIO interconnect.

It features three 64-bit DDR3/3L controllers supporting 64 GB per controller (192 GB total), interleaving at 1 KB/4 KB/8 KB granules, and active zeroization on security violation. The SerDes subsystem provides 32 lanes up to 10.3125 GHz, enabling XFI, XAUI, SGMII, QSGMII, HiGig2, and 10Gbase-KR interfaces alongside PCIe 2.0/3.0 (SR-IOV), Serial RapidIO 2.0, and Interlaken-LA.

Key Specifications

Pinout & Package

Package: 1932-pin Flip-Chip Plastic Ball Grid Array (FC-PBGA), 45 mm × 45 mm, RoHS-compliant, with thermal lid and underfill support for industrial and telecom environments.

Key Features

Applications

Equivalent & Alternatives

The following parts are listed as comparable options for similar multicore communications processor applications.

Compared with LX2160A, T4240NXN7PQB offers mature Power Architecture toolchains and deterministic real-time latency but lower per-thread integer throughput; compared with T4160NXN7PQB, it delivers 50% more threads, 12.5% higher frequency, and dual-FMAN redundancy-justifying its use in carrier-grade control-and-data-plane convergence.

Availability

T4240NXN7PQB is available at Aetrix Electronics and suitable for NFV infrastructure, intelligent NIC development, and ATCA-based telecom equipment requiring stable component supply across extended product lifecycles.

Supply support for T4240NXN7PQB includes scheduled delivery planning, volume procurement assistance, BOM continuity management, traceable sourcing, and lifecycle availability coordination for OEM customers, industrial embedded developers, connected-device designers, and electronics production programs.

Manufacturer

NXP Semiconductors is a global semiconductor company formed from the acquisition of Freescale Semiconductor in 2015, specializing in secure connectivity solutions for automotive, industrial, and communications markets.

The T4240NXN7PQB belongs to NXP's QorIQ T4 family of communications processors, designed specifically for consolidating control and data plane processing in high-performance networking, telecom infrastructure, and data center acceleration applications.

FAQ

What is the maximum operating frequency of the T4240NXN7PQB?

The T4240NXN7PQB operates at a maximum core frequency of 1.8 GHz, validated across the full 0–105°C junction temperature range. This binning enables deterministic real-time response and delivers 10,800 DMIPS per core. The frequency is sustained under thermal and voltage conditions specified in the official NXP T4240PB Product Brief Rev 1 (October 2014), and is supported by on-die PLLs with jitter specifications compliant with 10 GbE XFI and PCIe 3.0 timing requirements. T4240NXN7PQB maintains this frequency without throttling in properly heatsinked ATCA or 1U chassis environments.

Does the T4240NXN7PQB support hardware virtualization?

Yes, the T4240NXN7PQB includes comprehensive hardware virtualization support: an extra hypervisor privilege level, Logical-to-Real Address Translation (LRAT) acceleration, IOMMU-based DMA memory protection, and configurable storage profiles for I/O buffer isolation between guest environments. It is validated with KVM, Linux containers, and commercial hypervisors from Enea, Green Hills Software, Mentor Graphics, and Wind River. These capabilities are integral to the e6500 core and platform-level enhancements documented in the T4240 Product Brief, enabling secure multi-tenant NFV deployments without software-only emulation overhead. T4240NXN7PQB leverages these features to enforce strict VM separation in telecom edge applications.

What types of memory does the T4240NXN7PQB support?

The T4240NXN7PQB supports DDR3 and DDR3L SDRAM via three independent 64-bit controllers, each capable of 1867 MT/s (DDR3) or 1600 MT/s (DDR3L), with full ECC protection for data, tag, and status bits. It supports x4/x8/x16 memory widths, unbuffered and registered DIMMs, and up to four chip-selects per controller-enabling configurations up to 64 GB per controller (192 GB total). Page-mode operation supports up to 64 simultaneously open pages to reduce access latency, and active zeroization triggers on user-defined security violations. These memory features are defined in Section 5.7.1 of the official T4240PB documentation and confirmed in NXP's validated DDR initialization sequences for T4240NXN7PQB.

How many Ethernet interfaces does the T4240NXN7PQB provide?

The T4240NXN7PQB integrates dual Frame Managers (FMAN 1.1) supporting up to 4 × 10 GbE (XFI/XAUI) and 16 × 1 GbE (SGMII/QSGMII/RGMII) MACs in configurable combinations-including the maximum configuration of 4 × 10 GE + 10 × 1 GE + 2 × 1 GE. Each FMAN includes hardware-based egress traffic shaping and priority flow control for Data Center Bridging. Physical layer connectivity is achieved via its 32-lane SerDes supporting RGMII, SGMII, QSGMII, HiGig2, XAUI, XFI, and 10Gbase-KR protocols. This Ethernet capability is fully detailed in Sections 2.4 and 5.2 of the T4240 Product Brief and applies specifically to the T4240NXN7PQB speed-bin variant.

Is the T4240NXN7PQB pin-compatible with other QorIQ T4 family devices?

Yes, the T4240NXN7PQB is pin-compatible with the T4160NXN7PQB and T4080NXN7PQB within the same 1932-pin FC-PBGA package, enabling hardware scalability across performance tiers. All three share identical mechanical footprint, power delivery requirements, and SerDes lane mapping-allowing PCB reuse when migrating from T4080 (4 cores) to T4160 (8 cores) to T4240 (12 cores). This compatibility is explicitly stated in the T4240 Product Brief introduction ("3x performance scaling factor within a pin-compatible package") and verified in NXP's T4 family migration guides. T4240NXN7PQB retains full functional backward compatibility for peripherals, memory controllers, and I/O while enabling higher thread count and DPAA throughput.