Atmel celebrates 50 billion with ARM

ARM – which employs over 2,000 people around the globe – has billions of RISC-based processors in the wild and powers approximately 95% of the world’s smartphones. Recently, the British company marked a major milestone: 50 billion ARM-powered chips shipped.

Commenting on the milestone, Reza Kazerounian, Senior Vice President of Microcontrollers at Atmel, noted that ARM helps embedded developers significantly accelerate the development cycle by offering access to standard cores and an extensive ecosystem, including software and reference designs.

Kazerounian also said the next 100 billion chips will likely be led by intelligent connectivity, primarily in the context of the Internet of Things (IoT).

As we’ve previously discussed on Bits & Pieces, Atmel offers an extensive portfolio of microcontrollers (MCUs) and microprocessors (MPUs) based on the world’s most popular 8- and 32-bit architectures: Atmel AVR and ARM. Indeed, Atmel’s two decades of microcontroller leadership and innovation include many industry-firsts:

• The first Flash microcontroller, the first ARM7-based 32-bit Flash microcontroller
• The first 100nA microcontroller with RAM retention
• The first ARM9-based Flash microcontroller

“In order to simplify the embedded design process, we’ve meticulously built a robust ecosystem around our ARM microcontrollers,” an Atmel engineering rep told Bits & Pieces. ”Meaning, Atmel offers a wide range of software tools and embedded software that support leading operating systems, along with low-cost evaluation kits.”

In addition, Atmel’s flexible and highly integrated ARM-based MCUs are designed to optimize system control, user interface (UI) management and ease of use. That’s why our ARM Cortex-M3 and M4 based architectures share a single integrated development platform (IDP): Atmel Studio 6. This platform offers time-saving source code with more than 1,600 example projects, access to debuggers/simulators, integration with Atmel QTouchtools for capacitive touch applications and the Atmel Gallery online apps store where embedded software extensions can be downloaded.

Meanwhile, Atmel ARM-based MPUs range from entry-level devices to advanced highly-integrated devices with extensive connectivity, refined interfaces and ironclad security.

“Whether you are working on new, existing or legacy designs, a wide range of Atmel ARM-based devices provides the latest features and functionality. These devices also feature the lowest power consumption, a comprehensive set of integrated peripherals and high-speed connectivity,” the engineering rep added.

Interested in learning more about Atmel’s extensive ARM portfolio? You can check out our ARM MCUs here and our ARM MPUs here.

Atmel and Hillcrest Labs team up on sensor hubs

Atmel and Hillcrest Labs recently expanded their collaboration in the context of Atmel’s Partner Program to deliver turn-key sensor hub solutions. As we’ve previously discussed on Bits & Pieces, sensor hubs are increasingly being used to offload sensor management from a main processor.

Essentially, the combination of Hillcrest’s SH-1 sensor hub software and Atmel’s ultra-low power microcontrollers provides ‘always on’ features such as context awareness and gesture recognition, all while minimizing system power consumption.

In related news, Hillcrest also debuted a SH-1 sensor hub product designed to efficiently manage inertial, magnetic and environmental sensors using Atmel’s versatile SAM D20 ARM-powered Cortex M0+ based microcontroller (MCU). According to Chad Lucien, Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Hillcrest Labs, the SH-1 sensor hub is targeted at smartphones, tablets, wearable electronic devices and the Internet of Things (Iot).

“The SH-1 sensor hub is a complete software package that includes high performance, low power sensor fusion, context awareness and gesture recognition algorithms, optimized sensor drivers, and the hub/host interface which communicates with an application processor,” Lucien explained.

“The software transforms data from up to six different types of sensors—including inertial, magnetic and environmental sensors—into application-ready information and is designed to perform consistently regardless of the sensor supplier used. The combination of the low power sensor hub microcontroller and Hillcrest’s software is available for Android smartphones and tablets, wearable devices and a variety of other sensor-enabled devices.”

Meanwhile, Espen Krangnes, Senior Product Marketing Manager, MCU Product Marketing, Atmel Corporation, noted that the harmonization of software and hardware was critical to ensure advanced functionality and extended battery life for next-gen devices.

“Hillcrest’s heritage in developing cutting-edge motion processing software and our past experiences with the team made them an essential partner for our new program, and we look forward to working with them to develop products to address this rapidly growing market,” Krangnes added.

Smart, Connected Design at 2013 CES

Going to the 2013 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas next month? In our meeting room at the show, Atmel will showcase embedded technologies that inspire smart, connected designs. Among our many demos:

• QTouchADC and QMatrix touch sensing algorithms, proximity sensing, haptics and buttons, sliders and wheels functionality
• XSense touch sensor demo with curved glass
• Health monitor developed with ARM processor-based microcontrollers (MCUs)
• Low-power SAM4L ARM Cortex-M4 processor-based solution
• Sensor hub implementation with maXTouch S touchscreen controllers
• Atmel ZigBee Light Link

To schedule a meeting with Atmel executives and Tech Experts at CES, contact your local sales representative or send an email to events@atmel.com. We will also be in the ZigBee Pavilion with demos of our ZigBee Light Link and Wireless Composer/Sniffer solutions.

We look forward to seeing you in Las Vegas!