Ideal for smart meters, personal medical devices, and home automation products

Silicon Labs announced the launch of the new EFM32 Tiny Gecko microcontroller, which meets the design requirements for next-generation connected devices that are secure and battery-operated for the Internet of Things (IoT).

Silicon Labs' new EFM32TG11 Tiny Gecko MCU is a cost-effective ultra-low-power solution for designing connected devices that require long battery life while maintaining diverse functionality and security. The Tiny Gecko 11 MCU is ideal for smart meters, personal medical devices, and home automation products equipped with multiple sensors, displays, and touch control capabilities. The new product offers developers the highest level of design flexibility, as it can be used as a standalone MCU or in conjunction with a network coprocessor in IoT designs.

The Tiny Gecko 11 MCU is optimized for battery-powered applications that provide cloud connectivity via wireless access points (APs), gateways, and concentrators. When used with Silicon Labs transceivers, SoCs, or modules in many lightweight wireless applications, the Tiny Gecko 11 MCU can manage both application code and wireless connectivity.

For wireless systems using complex protocols such as 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi, the system design can be simplified by having the Tiny Gecko 11 handle the MCU applications. The Tiny Gecko 11 MCU includes sufficient memory, sensor interfaces, peripherals, communication links, and on-chip security technology, enabling it to support both wireless use cases and standalone MCU applications.

Based on an ARM® Cortex®-M0+ processor operating at 48MHz, the Tiny Gecko 11 MCU provides sufficient processing performance while maintaining excellent energy efficiency. This MCU supports low operating current consumption (37µA/MHz), fast startup times, and various sleep modes (1.3µA current consumption in deep sleep mode). Furthermore, due to various performance improvements in its architecture, it is suitable for designing secure, battery-powered IoT products that require both high performance and low power consumption.

The new product is software and pin compatible with other Silicon Labs EFM32 Gecko products and offers larger capacity flash memory (up to 128kB) and RAM (up to 32kB) than previous generation Tiny Gecko products, making it easier for developers to develop multifunctional embedded applications that support RTOS (real-time operating system) such as Micrium OS.