Atmel Expands Industry-Sensor Hub Platform Through Partnerships With Third Party Sensor Suppliers And Sensor Fusion Software Developers

SANTA CLARA, Calif., Oct. 29, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- ARM TechCon -- Atmel^® Corporation (NASDAQ: ATML), a global leader in microcontroller (MCU) and touch technology solutions, today announced the company has partnered with the industry's leading sensor and sensor fusion software manufacturers, accelerating embedded designers' ability to create smarter, connected devices including mobile sensor hubs, connected devices, wearables and Internet of Things applications. Atmel is also expanding its sensor hub solutions with the introduction of the SAM D20 Cortex M0+, an ultra-low power, high-performance flexible core that offers intelligent peripherals including dedicated hardware to support touch inputs, along with a variety of communication features ideally suited for these applications.

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Atmel has expanded its partnership with leading sensor manufacturers to provide designers the flexibility to select from the widest range of sensors, including Bosch, Intersil, Kionix, MEMSIC and Sensirion. Atmel has also partnered with leading sensor fusion software and application providers including Hillcrest Labs and Sensor Platforms. By leveraging these partnerships and their technologies, customers can significantly reduce development time with Atmel's MCUs that include the ported firmware. Software solutions from our partners are available today and are compatible with Atmel's development environments. Our partners will also provide sensor wing boards that are compatible with Atmel's Xplained development boards to accelerate the prototyping process allowing customers to take advantage of Atmel technologies including QTouch touch sensor controls, low-power wireless connectivity and graphical user interface (GUI) to provide complete solutions for the IoT market.

Atmel's sensor hub solutions combine inputs from multiple sensors and sensor types including motion sensors, such as accelerometers, magnetometers and gyroscopes, and environmental sensors that provide light level, color, temperature, pressure, humidity, and many other inputs. They provide real-time direction, orientation and inclination data bringing visibly superior performance to a range of applications including gaming, navigation, augmented reality, and contextual awareness. Atmel's low-power leadership opens up the possibility of an "always on" sensor system, enabling a wide range of exciting new applications.

According to market analyst BCC Research, the market for sensors is expected to increase to nearly $91.5 billion by 2016.* There is an increasing demand to offload the application processor with a standalone microcontroller that fuses the sensor data as more sensors are being integrated into today's Internet of Things, mobile, tablet, Ultrabook, gaming, consumer, wearable, and healthcare applications. The new Atmel sensor hub solutions include an efficient, ultra-low-power SAM D20 Cortex M0+ core that offloads the application processor, making it ideal for battery-operated devices.

Providing designers with flexible operating system (OS) capabilities, Atmel's sensor hub solutions support Windows, Android, and, now, real-time operating systems (RTOS).

"With the increasing number of sensors in consumer devices today and the desire to have these operate more of the time, low power is the key enabler for battery-powered devices," said Dr. Reza Kazerounian, Sr. VP and GM, Microcontroller Business Unit, Atmel Corporation. "The SAM D20 is the first of many devices in this series that is specifically tailored for sensor hubs. Our ultra-low power devices, the optimized features and the flexible development ecosystem bundled with the best sensors and sensor software, allow customers to create unique and differentiating products. We are excited to partner with key providers in the market to offer the best solutions for our customers."

Atmel's SAM D20 Cortex M0+-based MCU builds on decades of innovation and experience in embedded Flash MCU. The device offers ultra-low power through a patented power-saving technique called an Event System that allows peripherals to communicate directly to each other without involving the CPU. In addition, these devices offer peripheral flexibility through an innovative serial communication module (SERCOM) that is fully software-configurable to handle I2C, USART/UART and SPI communications. Finally, the devices offer memory densities ranging from 16KB to 256KB and devices are available in 32-, 48- and 64-pin QFP and QFN package options.

Availability
Atmel's SAM D20 Cortex M0+-based sensor hub solutions are available now.

More Information
Atmel's Sensor Hub Solutions: www.atmel.com/SensorHub
Atmel YouTube Channel at www.atmel.com/youtube
Twitter: www.atmel.com/twitter
LinkedIn: www.atmel.com/linkedin
Facebook: www.atmel.com/facebook

About Atmel
Atmel Corporation (Nasdaq: ATML) is a worldwide leader in the design and manufacture of microcontrollers, capacitive touch solutions, advanced logic, mixed-signal, nonvolatile memory and radio frequency (RF) components. Leveraging one of the industry's broadest intellectual property (IP) technology portfolios, Atmel is able to provide the electronics industry with complete system solutions focused on industrial, consumer, communications, computing and automotive markets.

© 2013 Atmel Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Atmel^®, Atmel logo and combinations thereof, and others are registered trademarks and others are trademarks of Atmel Corporation or its subsidiaries. ARM® and Cortex® are registered trademarks of Atmel Corporation. Other terms and product names may be trademarks of others.

*BCC Research Market Forecast: http://www.bccresearch.com/market-research/instrumentation-and-sensors/sensors-technologies-markets-ias006d.html

Sensor Partner Quotes

Bosch

"We've been the first adopters of Atmel's SAM D20 sensor hub solutions," said Dr. Stefan Finkbeiner, CEO and General Manager, Bosch Sensortec GmbH, a global provider of micro-mechanical sensors for the consumer electronics market. "With Atmel's solutions, our low-power 9-axis absolute orientation sensor (BNO055), optimized with Bosch Sensortec's sensor fusion software, can now achieve performance that was previously not possible in a single package."

Hillcrest Labs

"Atmel's commitment to ultra-low power, high-performance microcontrollers make them a perfect complement to our innovative sensor hub software," said Chad Lucien, Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Hillcrest Labs. "By extending our long-standing partnership, we are now able to provide a turn-key sensor hub solution using the SAM D20 with more functionality and better performance for our customers."

Intersil

"Ambient light and proximity sensing are becoming a must have in consumer applications including smartphones, gaming applications and wearables," said Mr. Sandeep Aji, Product Line Director, Optical Solutions, Intersil. "Our joint solution enables customers to offload the sensor processing and enable lower power consumption without degrading the performance of the device."

Kionix

"We are very excited about our partnership with Atmel through their Sensor Hub Ecosystem," said Paul Bryan, EVP of Product Management and Strategy, Kionix, Inc.  "The combination of our highly innovative KMX61G product, Atmel's sensor hub solutions and our sensor fusion allows us to bring a new level of motion sensing flexibility to device manufacturers and software developers."

MEMSIC

"As a variety of consumer electronics, Internet of Things and medical devices integrate six and nine axis sensor solutions, such as accelerometers, magnetometers, sensor fusion and more, it becomes increasingly important to ensure the devices provide a solid experience while minimizing power consumption," said John Newton, VP Marketing, MEMSIC. "Our partnership with Atmel's ultra-low power sensor hub solutions allows just that, by combining our high dynamic range, low power sensors with their uniquely designed MCUs that deliver low power consumption without compromising performance."

Sensirion

"As devices get smarter and more connected in smartphones and in the Internet of Things, there is an increasing need for environmental sensors, such as humidity and temperature," said Johannes Winkelmann, Technology Evangelist, Sensirion. "By partnering with Atmel on their ultra-low power sensor hub solutions, our customers can implement always-on sensor solutions while maintaining low-power consumption to increase the battery life for many of these battery-operated devices."

Sensor Platforms

"Sensor Platforms' FreeMotion Library is fully integrated into Atmel's ultra-low power Cortex M0+-MCU based sensor hub solutions," said Kevin Shaw, Chief Technology Officer, Sensor Platforms Inc. "OEMs using Atmel's sensor hub solutions can license our library of software with complete confidence that our software will work seamlessly with Atmel's ecosystem. We are thrilled to partner with Atmel."

Press Contact:

Agnes Toan, PR Manager

Tel: (+1) 408-487-2963, Email: [email protected]

SOURCE Atmel Corporation

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