ARM Cortex-M3 MCU core Adds recruits, start-up company's flagship ultra-low power applications

Based on ARM Cortex-M3 processor core application is now very common, including NXP, STMicroelectronics, Texas Instruments (acquired Luminary product line) other manufacturers have already have a powerful ARM Cortex-M3 core product line family. The Cortex-M3 China has accumulated a large community of developers, in 32-bit MCU area has also been very high recognition, applications ranging from consumer, household appliances, industrial, security, medical electronics and other fields. Cortex-M3 core using the MCU manufacturers usually concerned about the following features: lower power consumption, higher computing power, lower prices, more peripherals. Recently, a start-up company from Norway Energy Micro on the main low power consumption, released a new Cortex-M3 core MCU TP3057WMX products. It is understood, Energy Micro's president and CEO Geir Forre ISM band wireless communications transceiver is a leading manufacturer of Chipcon founder, Chipcon acquisition by TI in early 2006, shortly after, Geir Forre formed Energy Micro is the company, and from the TI, Nordic and other manufacturers hired a number of technical personnel, and for mixed analog-digital low-power design has a very rich experience. According to the Energy Micro's vice president Eirik Jorgensen R & D and sales vice president Bryan Hung introduced, Energy Micro in October 2009 announced the first 32-bit Cortex-M3 core EFM32 Gecko (Gecko) microcontroller family, a series of low-power applications . Recently, the company issued a second series: EFM32 'small gecko (TG). The product price less than $ 1, but with the energy of a large gecko's comparable products, with a combination of Flash and RAM of smaller features, MAX187BCWE optional space-saving QFN20, QFN32 and QFN64 packages. Bryan said the new product is very low current consumption: In Active mode the actual code execution from Flash when the power consumption per MHz of 180?A, in deep sleep mode is 900nA, in shutdown mode is 20nA. In the application benchmark, EFM32 gecko low current microcontroller performance, coupled with the start-up time to less than 2?s battery life of at least four times. Peripherals, the "small gecko can provide low-power peripherals, including low energy, UART and I2C serial interface, A / D and D / A converter and a host of counters and timers. Gecko's unique micro-controller is that it's "peripheral reflex system (peripheral reflex system) (PRS) with a standard parallel 32-bit ARM bus. PRS EFM32 gecko can run their own peripherals and communication, while the central processor is turned off, extended sleep and save a lot of energy. Energy Micro now price of only $ 69 can provide low-cost starter kit, to facilitate local engineers to invest in developing lower cost. In the Chinese market, Energy Micro has two agents with the Cooperative Extension program, in which the main push RTI POS and security, BOCCN main push industrial market, the future Energy Micro will also seek more partners and third-party design company. Because of Chipcon's background, R & D team ADS7846E in the short-range wireless transmission also has a wealth of experience. Expect the company's next-generation products will be integrated 2.4GHz wireless modules. Currently chipcon, nordic wireless products and more integrated 8051 core, the future integration of Cortex-M3 will be a trend, including the ST and other manufacturers are planning to Cortex-M3 products coupled with the wireless module. The Cortex-M3 development in China after more than four years, has entered a mature period of growth, Energy Micro to enter the market during this period, both to avoid the ADS7809U open market as hard as Luminary, took advantage of the huge development of China's current community-based, fully use of the "S curve theory. However, as many competitors, and more for international companies, Energy Micro will face many challenges. Bryan said, the beginning of the company's product line is certainly not as good as full of large companies, but small companies with customer support the advantage of strength and response speed, low power consumption of the future will be based on expanding product lines to meet the needs of Chinese customers. Energy Micro's vice president of sales Bryan Hung