Silicon Labs through the Wonder Gecko MCU Development Kit

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- Low Energy EFM32 Development Kit is designed for embedded signal and control applications in the IoT and portable products sector -

Beijing, China - July 15, 2013 - Silicon Labs (NASDAQ: SLAB), a leader in high-performance analog and mixed-signal ICs, today announced the development of a family of products for the EFM32 Gecko microcontroller (MCU) family. An application example developed by Energy Micro, recently acquired by Silicon Labs. Based on the ARM? CortexTM-M4 processor core, the Wonder Gecko MCU family provides a complete DSP instruction set and includes a hardware floating point unit (FPU) for faster computing performance. The development kit and software examples are designed to help embedded engineers implement 32-bit digital signal control with a high-performance CPU and ultra-low standby mode.

Geir Førre, senior vice president and general manager of Silicon Labs' MCU business, said: "We focus on energy efficiency, and the Wonder Gecko development kit enables embedded designers to achieve the most energy-efficient ARM Cortex-M4-based MCUs and lowest standby power modes. Wonder Gecko development kits and software libraries make it easy to take advantage of advanced signal processing capabilities and floating-point performance. More and more smart sensors and wireless applications benefit from efficient localization on sensor nodes, rather than massively on the network for remoting data transmission."

To reduce design time, the EFM32 development kit includes a built-in J-Link debugger and software examples that match the built-in features of the development kit:

An audio preamplifier equalizer that digitizes the audio connector signal using an MCU's on-chip analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and then outputs it through a digital-to-analog converter (DAC).

An audio analyzer that uses the audio connector on the development kit and performs a Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) and then displays the frequency map on the LCD of the development kit.

An application example using a built-in light sensor in a 10-500Hz FFT analysis.

These software demonstrations also allow designers to evaluate the differences between hardware floating point and software floating point operations, as well as compiler optimization options and CPU cycles.

The algorithm used for the example project coding is part of the Cortex Microcontroller Software Interface Standard (CMSIS) DSP library, which includes a complete FFT, finite impulse response (FIR) filter, matrix and vector operations, and statistical analysis. CMSIS provides a vendor-independent hardware abstraction layer (HAL) for ARM Cortex-M processors.

Silicon Labs' free Simplicity Studio software suite includes all necessary CMSIS, board support packages (BSPs), and supporting documentation for the development kit. The Wonder Gecko white paper in this document highlights the 32-bit processors in the EFM32 Wonder Gecko MCU family. , DSP and FPU performance advantages. At the same time, the white paper explains how the Wonder Gecko MCU delivers the best energy efficiency while achieving 32-bit advanced performance.

Price and availability

Silicon Labs' EFM32 hardware evaluation platform for Wonder Gecko MCU system products is ready. The EFM32WG-STK3800 entry-level kit retails for $79 and features an LCD segment display, light and touch sensors, and a USB interface to the host device. The full-featured EFM32WG-DK3850 development kit retails for $349 and includes a QVGA resistive touch color display, audio connectors, joysticks, switches and a potentiometer that acts as a user control interface. These two development kits provide advanced energy monitoring and real-time power graph display, support for the SEGGER J-Link debugger and Simplicity Studio development tools.