STMicroelectronics introduces a new generation of ultra-power efficient microcontrollers

     STMicroelectronics, a global semiconductor leader serving customers in a variety of electronic applications, today announced the introduction of a new generation of ultra-power efficient microcontrollers (MCUS), the STM32U5 series. To meet the most demanding power consumption/performance requirements of smart applications such as wearables, personal medical devices, home automation and industrial sensors.

     The industry-leading STM32 MCU is based on the energy-efficient Arm® Cortex®-M processor and is already used in billions of home appliances, industrial controls, computer peripherals, communications equipment, and devices that manage smart cities and infrastructure.

     The new STM32U5 series combines the highly efficient Arm Cortex-M33 core with ST's innovative patented energy saving features and on-chip IP to improve performance while reducing energy requirements. The family also adds new advanced features required for today's applications, including advanced network security, with new hardware-based protection for PSA and SESIP (iot Platform Security Assessment Standard) Assurance Level 3, and a graphics accelerator for enriching the user experience.

     "ST has almost doubled its share of the global microcontroller market in the last five years, shipping more than two billion ultra-low power STM32 device updates. With our expertise and focus in low power, we are particularly strong in the ultra-low power category, which accounts for about 25% of the market." Ricardo de Sa Earp, group vice president of ST's Microcontrollers division. "We expect our STM32U5 microcontroller to be even more popular, which will enable our customers to create new smart consumer and industrial products that deliver outstanding energy ratings, performance and network protection."

     "Today's smart applications must be energy efficient and built on a secure foundation," said Mohamed Awad, vice president of Arm's iot business. "ST has integrated Arm technology into its latest MCUS to take energy efficiency and safety to the next level, while developers can also leverage ArmKeil®MDK for ultimate energy optimization."

     ST has also created the STM32U5 IoT Discovery kit (B-U585I-IOT02A), which combines a Wi-Fi module for the MCU, a Bluetooth module, and various sensors. Microsoft has selected this toolkit as the reference board for the new Azure Certified Devices program. "The STM32U5 provides an excellent platform to leverage the advanced capabilities of the STM32U5 microcontroller to deliver Azure IoT services through Azure RTOS," said Sam George, corporate vice president of Azure IoT at Microsoft. The kit will be available for order later this year.

     Among STM32U5's key customers, leading cloud communications platform Twilio has used MCUS to create an innovative IoT device builder platform called the Microvisor. "Being one of the first developers to use the STM32U5, the Twilio Microvisor has the unique combination of extremely low power, high performance and advanced network security that Twilio customers are demanding," said Jonathan Williams, principal product manager at Twilio.