Cadence Design Systems, Inc., a leader in global electronic design innovation, today announced that Silicon Labs has significantly reduced the power consumption of its latest energy-friendly ARM-based microcontroller unit (MCU) by 50 percent using the complete Cadence mixed-signal low-power design flow. According to Silicon Labs, the new EFM32 Wonder Gecko, which incorporates an ARM Cortex-M4 core, uses 50 percent less power than competitors’ MCUs and extends battery life for applications running at higher temperatures. Targeting power-sensitive applications such as smart energy and home automation, the microcontroller achieves low-power operation in both active and sleep modes.
The MCU was developed by Energy Micro, which was recently acquired by Silicon Labs. Energy Micro has used the Cadence mixed-signal low-power flow to create nearly 250 ARM-based EFM32 Gecko MCU products since its inception in 2007. The Cadence integrated mixed-signal low-power flow includes the Virtuoso, Incisive, Encounter and Allegro platforms.
“Our goal from the start was to produce the world’s most energy-friendly microcontrollers. To achieve that, we have relied on the fully integrated Cadence flow,” said Øyvind Janbu, senior director, strategic marketing for microcontroller products at Silicon Labs. “As a result, we have consistently hit our aggressive ultra-low-power targets quickly and with first-pass silicon success.”
“The success of EFM32 Gecko MCUs in the embedded market is a testament to how Cadence’s technology helps our customers achieve differentiated energy efficient design goals,” said Dr. Chi-Ping Hsu, chief strategy officer and senior vice president of digital and signoff group at Cadence. “This is a great case study of how Cadence technologies have enabled Gecko MCUs go from the ground up to market success.”