Silicon Labs introduces a flexible, easy-to-use 32-bit mixed-signal MCU

     Silicon Laboratories announced the introduction of the Precision32 MCU family, bringing unprecedented design flexibility to the 32-bit MCU market. The new Precision32 family of products based on ARM® Cortex™-M3 processors includes 32-bit SiM3U1xx and SiM3C1xx MCU products with pin-compatible options for integrated and non-integrated USB capabilities. By providing a highly integrated and flexible architecture with a rich set of peripherals, ultra-low power consumption and free downloadable Eclipse-based development tools, the Precision32 family of products is suitable for a variety of applications. These include portable medical devices, point-of-sale peripherals, motor controls, industrial monitoring, barcode scanners, optical touch screen interfaces, sensor controllers and home automation systems.

     Design times are often squeezed to achieve rapid time-to-market, and today embedded developers have limited time to meet complex and variable design needs, while also meeting strict cost and power budgets. Many 32-bit MCU products currently lack a certain degree of architectural flexibility, especially pin and peripheral location allocation, which makes product design more difficult. The Precision32 family of products can fully customize the I/O system and pin location assignment, providing developers with a more flexible alternative.

     Using Silicon Labs' patented dual crossbar technology and drag-and-drop GUI, developers can easily select and pin the required analog and digital peripherals. Other MCUS in the same class often pre-define peripheral locations and pins, leading to potential pin conflicts that force developers to change designs or use larger, more expensive packages. Silicon Labs crossbar design and GUI-based AppBuilder software enable developers to optimize their peripherals combinations and pin assignments close to connected devices, thereby reducing pin conflicts, simplifying PCB routing, minimizing PCB layers, and ultimately reducing system costs.

     The Precision32 series' analog peripherals are rated across the full temperature and voltage range (down to 1.8V) and are rigorously tested. In fact, these high-performance analog peripherals are so reliable that they can be used to replace standalone analog components. In addition, Precision32 simulation peripherals are highly configurable, enabling developers to simplify designs and optimize performance for different embedded applications.

     The Silicon Labs Precision32 series offers industry-leading power performance in both work and sleep modes. MCU products utilize Silicon Labs' state-of-the-art patented low-power design technology to reduce power consumption per MCU block, reducing operating current by up to 33% (22mA or 275µA/MHz at 80MHz) and sleeping current by a factor of 100 (0.35µA, 0.35µA) compared to other comparable 32-bit solutions. Start RTC and keep 4KB of RAM content). In addition, multiple power modes and clock options enable developers to optimize embedded designs and achieve minimum power consumption at specific performance levels.

     Linley Gwennap, principal analyst, Linley Group, said: "Silicon Labs has applied its analog/mixed-signal expertise to the new 32-bit MCU, enabling a precise analog peripheral feature set and flexible I/O system. While there are a few other products on the market that offer similar functionality, no company has come close to matching these mixed-signal MCU offerings. Developers using MCU products from large vendors should pay attention to this new member of the 32-bit MCU market."

     To simplify embedded application development based on the Precision32 family of products, Silicon Labs offers a rich set of hardware and software tools, including a Unified Development Platform (UDP) with replaceable MCUS, RF components, and other subsystems that can be adapted to the application needs of a wide variety of developers. UDP includes a mother board, multiple modular subboards, and panels for prototyping, expansion, and system integration; It also supports MCU code and firmware development, multiple network and protocol stacks, and USB drivers. To accelerate sub-GHz RF design, Silicon Labs is offering RF test cards for UDP that support the company's latest Si446x EZRadioPRO transceiver.

     Silicon Labs' excellent Eclipse-based integrated development environment (IDE), including a compiler, debugger, and online information interface, supports a variety of critical application information, such as: software libraries with sample code, data books, schematics, PCB packaging, application notes, version control, and automatic updates. Another core IDE tool for Silicon Labs is the GUI-based AppBuilder software, which enables developers to quickly and graphically select their peripheral sets and properties, configure clock patterns, customize pins, and generate source code without having to write code or read a data book.

     The Precision32 family of products also gives developers access to a wide range of software and development tools optimized for the ARM architecture, including Keil and IAR toolchains. To accelerate development and code portability across MCU platforms, Silicon Labs also offers Cortex Microcontroller Software Interface Standard (CMSIS) compliant code. The universal peripheral ARM software interface allows peripheral drivers to be reused and simplifies code migration between other ARM-based microcontrollers.

     Mike Salas, general manager of the MCU product line at Silicon Labs, said: "Our Precision32 family of products gives embedded developers a better 32-bit option with extreme design flexibility, peripheral integration, analog performance and ultra-low power consumption at a competitive price point. We also offer developers a highly integrated and complete hardware and free software development toolset that enables rapid prototyping and development on the most flexible and easy-to-use 32-bit MCU architecture in the embedded space."