STMicro to sample STM32L series ARM Cortex-M3

LONDON, UK: STMicroelectronics NV recently announced it is sampling the STM32L series of ultra-low-power ARM Cortex-M3 microcontrollers.

The STM32L series is a combination of a devoted low-leakage 130-nm process technology and optimized power-saving architecture offering 33 dhrystone MIPS at 32-MHz maximum clock frequency and integrated flash memory densities from 64- to 128-kbyte. 

Present consumption varies between 270-nA in standby mode having no real-time clock however with a back-up register conserved to 10.4-microamps in low-power run mode at 32-kHz. 

ST has made multiple moves to lessen power consumption by including: implementing a low-power on-chip flash memory, two extra low-power modes, dynamic voltage scaling and operation down to 1.8-V for analog and down to 1.65-V for digital functions. 

This complex approach is comparable to that formerly taken by Energy Micro AS (Oslo, Norway) with its EFM32 family of microcontrollers, otherwise called Gecko. At the time of their introduction in the month of October 2009, they were claimed to present over four times the battery life of on hand at 8, 16 or 32-bit microcontrollers 

The STM32L series is sampling currently to guide clients, and is priced from $1.86 for the STM32L151 with 64-kbyte flash in the LQFP48 package to $2.81 for the STM32L152 with 128-kbyte in LQFP100, for orders more than 10,000 pieces. Volume production is outstanding to commence in Q4 of the year 2010.