The blackfin processor family is extended further into the industrial and instrumentation market with the availability of an on chip eMAC which supports 1588 version 2, a 3-phase PWM generation unit and a quadrature encoder. The high performance 16-/32-bit blackfin embedded processor core, the flexible cache architecture, the enhanced DMA subsystem and the dynamic power management (DPM) functionality allow system designers a flexible platform to address a wide range of connected applications, including motor control, power line monitoring, biometrics, pro-audio and femto cells.

The ADSP-BF518 provides a security scheme which balances flexibility and upgradeability with performance through the inclusion of a firmware-based solution including OTP (one time programmable) memory to enable users to implement private keys for secure access to program code.