CES International, January 7, 2014 – Silicon Labs (NASDAQ: SLAB, Country Manager In-gyu Kim), a global leader in high-performance analog-intensive mixed-signal ICs, announced today that Magellan, a leader in innovative GPS devices, has adopted Silicon Labs’ EFM32™ Giant Gecko microcontroller (MCU) as the energy-efficient processing platform for its Echo smart sports watch. Magellan’s Echo watch was selected as a winner of the 2014 CES Design Innovation and Engineering Awards and provides the first “open” smart sports watch platform. This platform allows application developers to add apps that can be viewed and controlled from the wrist.

In the rapidly growing emerging market for wearables and appcessories, the award-winning Magellan Echo watch represents innovative design. Its display and watch faces are customizable, allowing it to reflect a wide range of sports and fitness activities—from running, cycling, and hiking to golf—while offering additional features such as the ability to remotely control music and sports apps on a smartphone. Unlike other smartwatches, the Echo watch utilizes the smartphone's built-in GPS and communicates directly with iPhones and Android devices via Bluetooth Smart. Its modern design has resulted in a lightweight sports watch featuring exceptionally long battery life compared to competitor devices.

The 32-bit Giant Gecko MCU is based on the ARM® Cortex®-M3 core and plays a key role in the energy efficiency required for sports watches. Accordingly, the Echo watch can operate for up to 11 months on a single CR2032 coin cell battery. The Magellan Echo design team achieved the lowest energy target by optimizing the five energy modes of the Giant Gecko MCU and utilizing the MCU's Low Energy Sensor Interface (LESENSE) and Peripheral Reflex System (PRS). These features enable energy-friendly and autonomous operation, allowing the peripherals to perform timing and sensor control without CPU intervention.

Clark Weber, Senior Director of Fitness and Wearable Products at Magellan, stated, “We designed an easy-to-use Eco watch that is always running and lasts for a long time without needing to be recharged, while providing direct access to training and entertainment apps preferred by sports fans and fitness professionals. Because the sophisticated functions require a lot of energy, we selected the EFM32 Giant Gecko and Simplicity Studio design tools as our 32-bit low-energy platform. This allowed us to maximize battery life without compromising the end-user experience or potential future functionality.”

Simplicity Studio is an easy-to-use graphical development environment suitable for EFM32 Gecko MCU applications. Available to developers for free, Simplicity Studio provides all documentation, tools, software, and necessary source code libraries with a single click to accelerate development. Key elements of Simplicity Studio include the energyAware Profiler, a developer-friendly debugging tool for low-energy embedded development, and the energyAware Designer, a tool that simplifies debugging I/O pin conflicts.

Geir Førre, Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Microcontroller Business Unit at Silicon Labs, said, “The Magellan Echo Smart Sports Watch is a prime example of the rapidly growing market for energy-efficient battery-powered wearables, and our energy-friendly EFM32 Gecko MCU fits in very well. We would like to applaud Magellan for introducing numerous new innovations to the award-winning Echo Sports Watch, such as continued smartphone compatibility and an open platform approach to developing fitness applications.”