Atmel Joins EEMBC to Participate in Microcontroller Benchmark Development and to Advocate Low Power Embedded Design

EL DORADO HILLS, Calif., Jan. 30, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Embedded Microprocessor Benchmark Consortium (EEMBC®) today announced that Atmel® (NASDAQ: ATML), a leader in microcontroller and touch solutions, has joined the consortium's Automotive/Industrial subcommittee. Within this subcommittee, working groups are defining and developing benchmarks targeting low-power automotive applications and ultra-low power portable electronics applications.  Atmel's membership in EEMBC will allow the company to utilize these benchmarks, as well as EEMBC CoreMark®, to validate and publicize the performance of its microcontrollers.

EEMBC was formed in 1997 to develop meaningful performance benchmarks for the hardware and software used in embedded systems. EEMBC benchmarks help ensure predictable performance of embedded processors and systems in a range of applications and disciplines. In addition to the benchmarks currently in development, the Automotive/Industrial subcommittee supports the industry-standard benchmark suite called AutoBench, currently in use within thousands of companies and universities worldwide.

"As a leading microcontroller and touch solutions provider, Atmel is a valuable addition to our membership and our new ultra-low power benchmark working group," said Markus Levy, EEMBC President. "Atmel's expertise in this industry will help ensure that our new benchmarks appropriately measure the performance and energy consumption of microcontrollers."

"Development of a validated method for measuring microcontroller performance, power, and energy is a critical industry need. Currently, most vendors use a variety of benchmarks and workloads to establish their metrics, making it impossible to reliably and consistently compare microcontroller solutions," said Peter Jones, Vice President of the Microcontroller & Touch Business Units for Atmel Corporation. "We look forward to contributing our expertise to help EEMBC standardize its new energy-related benchmarks. Our work together will go a long way towards helping our customers understand their ultra-low power applications."

About EEMBC
EEMBC, the Embedded Microprocessor Benchmark Consortium, is a non-profit organization that develops industry-standard benchmarks to test embedded processors and systems such as smart phones and network firewall appliances. EEMBC's benchmark development work is supported by yearly member dues and license fees. Further information is available at www.eembc.org.

EEMBC, CoreMark, and BrowsingBench are registered trademarks of the Embedded Microprocessor Benchmark Consortium. All other trademarks appearing herein are the property of their respective owners. For more information, visit www.eembc.org.

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.

EEMBC, CoreMark, and BrowsingBench are registered trademarks of the Embedded Microprocessor Benchmark Consortium. All other trademarks appearing herein are the property of their respective owners.

SOURCE Embedded Microprocessor Benchmark Consortium (EEMBC)