Bangalore, July 26 2012: Europe’s largest semiconductor company, STMicroelectronics, used the recent Embedded Systems Conference in Bangalore (ESC India 2012) to introduce its cost-effective microcontroller unit (MCU) family – STM32 – to Indian developers and OEM players. The 32-bit MCUs powered by the industry-standard ARM Cortex-M processor, strikes a nice balance between performance and price explained Betrand Dennis, ST’s 32-bit MCU Product Line Manager, who with MCU’s Singapore-based South Asia and China Marketing Manager Franck Martins, made the key product presentation at the ESC event.
A plethora of proven applications – from induction cooker controls to touch-based consumer electronic controls to infrared remotes for TV and home entertainment to car computer control systems -- many of them on display at the ST stand, demonstrated the new product line’s versatility in addressing developers’ major pain points: the cost constraints of earlier 8-bit and 1-bit options; the need for reusability of designs with future MCU upgrades, the ever present concern to reduce power requirements.
To encourage even the smallest developer agencies to build solutions around the STM 32 family, the company offered free software libraries for standard applications as well as a number of handy “Discovery” kits – for just $ 8 a go -- for evaluation and prototyping designs fuelled by the MCU.
The new F3 series extended the scope of the STM32 family by allowing designers to tackle mixed-signal control applications, explained Denis, in a special briefing for IndiaTechOnline.
Other product launches made in recent days include: a multi-standard digital radio chipset, jointly with Bosch Car Multimedia, to fuel cost-effective car infotainment systems and an ultra-compact multi-sensor Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) module with programmable motion-recognition capabilities: The LSM330 module houses a 3-axis digital gyroscope and a 3-axis digital accelerometer with two embedded finite state machines – programmable blocks that enable custom motion recognition inside the module. www.st.com/mems
Many of ST’s products have been designed in the company’s R&D centres in India, explained Vinay Thapliyal, Technical Marketing Manager , Microcontroller Division, based in Greater Noida. ( see company’s note on ST in India below)
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STMicroelectronics in India Starting with just four employees in 1987, STMicroelectronics’ operations in India have grown to an organization with about 2,300 employees, including over 730 employees of ST-Ericsson. ST was one of the very first microelectronics companies to recognize India’s potential and, by 1990. Today ST’s advanced R&D centres at Greater Noida and Bangalore are contributing significantly to almost all key application segments of the Company. Greater Noida is ST’s largest design center outside Europe.
The range of R&D activities carried out by ST in India include the development and industrialization of high-value platforms, SoCs (Systems on Chip), embedded systems, application-specific IP (Intellectual Property), and reference designs in various application segments, including home entertainment, multimedia, telecommunications, imaging, automotive, computer peripherals, and industrial control. ST designers in India have developed embedded solutions for a wide variety of applications, including Set-Top-Box, Wireless, Digital TV and Multimedia.
ST’s design center in India has developed and implemented both the chip and software for the STi5197, ST’s latest MPEG decoder for standard-definition, low-cost set-top box applications, which has become a successful global product for the Company.
ST India has also been a major contributor to the development of the award-winning Nomadik chip family (now part of the ST-Ericsson portfolio) of application processors for portable mobile devices. In Integrated TV, ST Bangalore has been the epicenter of the SoC and software design and implementation for the Company’s latest 3D iDTV product family (Freeman), targeting worldwide TV solutions.
ST’s engineers in India have made a substantial contribution to the development of the Company’s leading-edge low-power 45nm design platform. ST designers in India have developed libraries for 32nm and are now working to develop 28nm design platforms for future-generation products.
ST’s design teams in India specialize in VLSI design, embedded software development, application engineering, and the company’s Information Systems. ST in India has filed close to 400 original patents applications to date, of which around 195 have currently been granted. http://www.st.com/internet/com/home/home.jsp