Energy Micro wins Embedded Award for energy friendly 32-bit microcontroller

Oslo, Norway, March 2nd, 2010 – Energy Micro® has received the coveted Embedded Award for Hardware at Embedded World 2010 for its EFM®32 Gecko energy friendly microcontroller. The award was presented to Energy Micro President and CEO Geir Førre at the exhibition’s opening ceremony at the Nuremberg Messe.

Engineered around the energy-efficient ARM® Cortex™-M3 architecture, the 32-bit Gecko products use less than a quarter of the energy needed by alternative 8-, 16- or 32-bit microcontrollers. Their current consumption is extremely low: in active mode typically 180µA per MHz executing code from Flash, 900nA in deep sleep mode and 20nA in shut off mode. In application benchmark tests, this low current performance, combined with a wake-up time of under 2µs has enabled the EFM32 Gecko microcontrollers to extend battery cell life by a factor of at least four.

The annual Embedded Awards honour outstanding technical innovations in embedded technologies, with winners selected by an independent jury of industry experts. Three awards are made, covering Hardware, Software and Tools award categories. In the Hardware category Energy Micro beat off strong competition from Atmel, ST Microelectronics and Toshiba.

Based on the ARM® Cortex™-M3 architecture, the first 32-bit Gecko products, announced in October 2009, use less than a quarter of the energy needed by alternative 8-, 16- or 32-bit microcontrollers. In application benchmark testing, the Gecko microcontrollers have succeeded in extending battery cell life by a factor of at least four.

Førre said: "We’re very pleased that the Embedded World Jury has recognised the unique energy-saving innovations in our first product range. In doing so it has also recognised the achievements of a very young and forward-thinking company, which is equally rewarding. The Energy Micro design team has produced the world’s most energy friendly microcontroller and this award reflects the team’s fantastic efforts."

At Embedded World 2010, Energy Micro unveiled its family of entry-level devices for low power applications with tight space and cost limitations. Priced at under a Dollar, the EFM32 ‘Tiny Gecko’ microcontrollers provide the energy-efficiency of the company’s bigger Gecko products combined with smaller Flash and RAM capacities and a choice of space saving packaging.

For further information and reader enquiries:

Øyvind Borgan, Energy Micro AS, PO Box 4633, Nydalen, N-405 Oslo, Norway

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Tel:+47 23 00 98 00
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www.energymicro.com

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Rob Davies, Publitek Limited, 18 Brock Street, Bath, BA1 2LW, United Kingdom

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About Energy Micro
Energy Micro develops, markets and sells the world's most energy friendly microcontrollers, based on the industry leading ARM® Cortex™-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

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