NXP announces support for MS .NET Micro Framework

USA: NXP, the independent semiconductor company founded by Philips, and Adeneo, a Microsoft Windows Embedded Partner Program Gold member, announced that the Microsoft .NET Micro Framework has been ported to support NXP’s popular LPC2000 microcontroller family based on the ARM7 processor and the NXP LPC3180 microcontroller based on the ARM9 processor.

Embedded developers will now be able to take advantage of Microsoft .NET and Visual Studio tools when designing solutions based on the NXP LPC2000 and LPC3000 family of microcontrollers, and accelerate the development of applications for small-footprint, low-power devices. Similarly, Microsoft Windows application developers will find it straightforward to use the NXP LPC2000 and LPC3000 microcontrollers as their platform for embedded applications.

"Adeneo is working closely with NXP to provide strong support and solutions related to Windows Embedded technology on the LPC2000 and LPC3000 chip families," said Yannick Chamming, CEO, Adeneo North America.

He added, "Following our announcement of the Windows Embedded CE 6.0 Board Support Package

With a low memory footprint, the Microsoft .NET Micro Framework was built from the ground up as a solution for small embedded devices, bringing the .NET environment to new applications such as home automation systems, industrial sensors, retail displays and healthcare monitors.

Through support for the NXP LPC2000 and LPC3000 microcontrollers, embedded developers can take full advantage of the C# development language, as well as the rich development and debugging functionality of Microsoft Visual Studio. Further, the framework makes it simpler to write device drivers in C# for hardware connected through industry-standard interfaces such as SPI, I2C, GPIO and UART.

"We’re pleased to extend the .NET experience to NXP’s broad portfolio of 32-bit ARM technology-based microcontrollers," said Colin Miller, product unit manager, .NET Micro Framework, Microsoft Corp. "The addition of the LPC2000 and LPC3000 families to the .NET Micro Framework fold will make NXP’s rich portfolio of low-power microcontrollers more accessible to developers using the world-class development tools available with Visual Studio."

(BSP) for the NXP LPC3180 microcontroller earlier this year, we are proud to complete this offering through a .NET Micro Framework on this chip. We completed this port in just a few weeks, which demonstrates Adeneo’s expertise in both the .NET Micro Framework as well as the NXP LPC microcontroller architecture. Our port comes with a complete custom emulator, which enables the development of .NET Micro Framework applications targeting LPC3180-based designs without a board."

"For developers using Microsoft Visual Studio, it’s now easier than ever to use NXP LPC2000 and LPC3000 microcontrollers as their platform for embedded development," said Geoff Lees, general manager, microcontroller product line, NXP Semiconductors. "With support for the Microsoft .NET Micro Framework, we expect to reach a broad range of embedded and desktop developers building feature-rich applications for portable, energy-efficient products."