Silicon Labs is now supporting the ARM mbed OS for its EFM32 Gecko MCU product line. The move could bring the ARM mbed OS to a number of Internet of Things devices.
The support essentially means that Silicon Labs’ Happy Gecko, Giant Gecko, Wonder Gecko, and Leopard Gecko microcontrollers will now be able to run on ARM’s mbed OS – a fitting development, since these Gecko MCUs are based on ARM Cortex-M processors. Moreover, both Silicon Labs and ARM have focused on energy-efficient technologies, with both companies having collaboratively developed power management APIs for the mbed OS.
Silicon Labs technology has a range of capabilities that could be of interest to IoT developers; for example, its Giant Gecko MCU sports Bluetooth connectivity and biometric heart rate monitoring, offering potential applications in the wearables market. With ARM’s embed OS helping to unlock the energy efficiency potential of such an MCU, IoT developers could potentially build small, long-lasting connected wearables that can track users’ cardiac data.
In a statement, Silicon Labs VP Daniel Cooley summed up the possibilities with his assertion that the “combination of Silicon Labs’ Gecko MCU, wireless and sensing solutions and ARM’s energy-friendly mbed OS implementation provides an unparalleled platform for developing standards-based, low-energy products for the IoT.”
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