Ambiq Micro and TSMC Deliver World's Lowest Energy Consumption for Huawei's Fitness Wearables

AUSTIN, Texas and HSINCHU, Taiwan, Sept. 7, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Ambiq Micro, the pioneer and leader in ultra-low power solutions, today announced that Huawei has selected the Apollo2 platform, built on TSMC's 40nm Near-Vt technology platform, to power its new line of lightweight fitness wearables including the newly launched Huawei Band 2 Pro. The Apollo2 platform features high performance sensor and application processing at a breakthrough power consumption of under 10µA/MHz, enabling more than twice the battery life in wearable and IoT devices, as well as enhanced intelligence and improved functionality.

At the heart of the Apollo2 platform is Ambiq Micro's patented Subthreshold Power Optimized Technology (SPOT™), which includes wide-ranging IP to drive record-breaking energy efficiency. In addition, Apollo2 leverages TSMC's 40nm Near-Vt technology platform to significantly cut power use by always-on devices and meet the stringent power and connectivity demands of the wearables and IoT markets.

Consumers in the rapidly-growing wearables and IoT markets are demanding increased intelligence, extended battery life and more powerful features that let them do more with their devices. Ambiq Micro's Apollo2 is redefining what is possible by dramatically reducing energy consumption while leaving plenty of room for sensor and application processing power.

"We're excited to partner with Huawei to power its new line of fitness wearables," said Scott Hanson, founder and Chief Technology Officer of Ambiq Micro. "We congratulate Huawei on its product launch and we're thrilled that our superior low-power technology built on TSMC's 40nm Near-Vt technology platform is helping Huawei offer new and better wearable and IoT products. Manufacturers can now build smarter, more innovative wearables and IoT devices without worrying about the trade-off between features and battery life."

Huawei chose the Apollo2 because it is the lowest-power microcontroller on the market and for Ambiq's unique SPOT technology, which enables Huawei to achieve greater efficiencies for its next wave of wearables and connected devices. This is clearly demonstrated in the Huawei Band Pro 2 product, available on Amazon.com, which includes professional runner training, advanced sleep tracking, and relaxation exercises without sacrificing crucial battery life.

"Ambiq's groundbreaking low-power technology is critical because consumers are demanding always-on, always-connected, always-aware devices with longer battery life and slimmer, more fashionable form factors," said Rico Zhang, Smart Wearable Product Line President of Huawei."We are very pleased to offer the most innovative fitness wearables in the market, enabled by Ambiq Micro's Apollo2 platform."

"We are pleased to partner with Ambiq to provide a unique and innovative low power solution," said Been-Jon Woo, Vice President of TSMC. "TSMC's ultra-low power (ULP) platforms, including 55ULP, 40ULP, and 22ULP/ULL are widely adopted for a variety of wearable and IoT applications. As we extend ULP technology to Near-Vt (NVT) technology for designs like Ambiq Micro's Apollo2 platform, we are committed to providing a comprehensive ULP/NVT technology platform and IP ecosystem to enable the best IoT product solutions."

A wide variety of major brands and OEMs are using Ambiq Micro technology to build functional, innovative and enjoyable low power devices for consumers. The Apollo2 platform's low power consumption and large memory size delivers the ability to continue creating robust, industry-leading consumer applications and devices.

About Ambiq Micro
Ambiq Micro was founded in 2010 on the simple yet powerful notion that extremely low power semiconductors are the key to the future of electronics. Through the use of pioneering ultra-low power technology, innovative companies around the world are developing differentiated solutions that reduce or eliminate the need for batteries, lower overall system power, and maximize industrial design flexibility. Ambiq Micro has developed breakthrough technology based on its patented Subthreshold Power Optimized Technology (SPOT™) platform that dramatically reduces the amount of power consumed by semiconductors thus making its integrated circuits (ICs) an ideal solution for energy critical applications. Ambiq Micro is headquartered in Austin, Texas.

About TSMC
TSMC is the world's largest dedicated semiconductor foundry, providing the industry's leading process technology and the foundry's largest portfolio of process-proven libraries, IPs, design tools and reference flows. The Company's owned capacity in 2017 is expected to reach above 11 million (12-inch equivalent) wafers, including capacity from three advanced 12-inch GIGAFAB® facilities, four eight-inch fabs, one six-inch fab, as well as TSMC's wholly owned subsidiaries, WaferTech and TSMC China. TSMC is the first foundry to provide both 20nm and 16nm production capabilities. Its corporate headquarters are in Hsinchu, Taiwan. For more information about TSMC please visit http://www.tsmc.com.

About Huawei Consumer Business Group
Huawei's products and services are available in more than 170 countries, and are used by a third of the world's population, ranking third in the world in mobile phone shipments in 2015. Sixteen R&D centers have been set up in the United States, Germany, Sweden, Russia, India and China. Huawei Consumer Business Group is one of Huawei's three business units and covers smartphones, PC and tablets, wearables and cloud services, etc. Huawei's global network is built on 20 years of expertise in the telecom industry and is dedicated to delivering the latest technological advances to consumers around the world.

For more information please visit: http://consumer.huawei.com

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SOURCE Ambiq Micro