In addition to enabling developers to manage processor and peripheral states, the mbed power management API is designed for real-world low-power application scenarios. New features implemented via the API on Silicon Labs’ EFM32® Gecko microcontrollers (MCUs) can dramatically reduce system-level energy consumption by automatically determining and executing the optimal standby mode based on the MCU peripherals in use. This low-energy optimization, which minimizes power consumption, is achieved by running I/O operations in the background, thereby maintaining continuous I/O activity even when the MCU core is in standby mode or performing other processing tasks.

By combining the energy-saving features of autonomous peripherals with the automatic selection of the optimal standby mode, developers can significantly reduce the energy consumption of IoT applications with minimal effort. For example, a clock application that updates the display every second using a memory LCD is a common use case for IoT devices, and the energy profile for this shows that current consumption is reduced from 1.03 mA to 0.100 mA.

"With the new power management API for ARM mbed, developers can leverage the low-power advantages of ARM Cortex-M-based microcontrollers to develop applications," said Zach Shelby, Vice President of IoT Business Marketing at ARM. "The power management API is a significant step in enabling awareness of energy importance in IoT devices and is one of the key building blocks for mbed OS, which is scheduled for full release later this year."

Daniel Cooley, Vice President and General Manager of the MCU/Wireless Business Unit at Silicon Labs, said, “As leaders in low-power processing solutions for IoT, Silicon Labs and ARM are undertaking the massive task of defining and implementing new power management APIs for mbed. We are pleased to contribute to Silicon Labs providing the industry’s first low-power mbed platform, and the mbed platform will play a key role in accelerating the deployment of numerous battery-operated IoT applications.”

Purchase Information

Silicon Labs plans to supply the EFM32 Gecko starter kit, which supports mbed, in April 2015. Silicon Labs' initial platforms supporting mbed will include Wonder Gecko, Leopard Gecko, Giant Gecko, and Zero Gecko starter kits. Developers using existing EFM32 kits can implement their hardware as mbed with a simple software upgrade. For more information on Silicon Labs' mbed platform, please visit www.silabs.com/mbed.