Oslo, Norway, 16th December 2009 – Energy Micro, the energy friendly microcontroller company, today announced a development kit for its EFM32 Gecko MCU family providing users with a unique Advanced Energy Monitoring (AEM) system. Via a large in-built LCD screen and preconfigured GUI, AEM enables users to accurately view a prototype application’s current consumption data in real time, enabling early identification and removal of adverse energy drains.
Modular in construction, the development kit comprises a motherboard, a plug-in MCU card (available either with or without a 160-segment LCD) and a large plug-in protoyping card for rapid application development. Based on the ultra efficient ARM® Cortex(TM) M3 microcontroller architecture, the target EFM32G MCU running at 3V consumes less than 180µA per MHz in executing code from Flash and is proven to extend battery life by a factor of 4 when compared to alternative 8,16 or 32-bit low power microcontrollers.
To simplify application debugging and programming the development kit features an on-board USB / J-Link emulator and standard 20-pin debug connector. The kit’s GPIO interfaces are comprehensive and include LEDs, DIP and pushbutton switches, a mini joystick and potentiometer. Analog options comprise a light sensor, 3-axis accelerometer and audio line-in / line-out, while communications ports provided are 2 x RS232 serial, I2C and an IR transceiver.
Supporting the development kit is Energy Micro’s software library, built on ARM’s standard CMSIS abstraction layer, IAR’s Embedded Workbench® and Keil’s MDK-ARM Microcontroller Development Kit.
The EFM32 Gecko development kit is available direct from Energy Micro’s local and global distribution channels http://www.energymicro.com/buy and is priced at $299 USD. Further information can be found at http://www.energymicro.com/products/efm32-gecko-development-kit
Energy Micro develops, markets and sells the world’s most energy friendly microcontrollers, based on the industry leading ARM® Cortex(TM)-M3 32-bit architecture. The company was founded in 2007 by experienced semiconductor professionals with previous expertise from Chipcon, Texas Instruments, Atmel and Nordic Semiconductor. More information on Energy Micro is available at www.energymicro.com
