STMicroelectronics Launches Microcontroller Application Design Contest; Prizes Exceed $10,000

COPPELL, Texas, Nov. 10, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- The Americas Region of STMicroelectronics (NYSE: STM), a world leader in microcontrollers, today launched the STM32 Design Challenge (www.stm32challenge.com), a contest for the design of innovative microcontroller applications across different industry segments. The three-phase competition, acknowledging the most creative, design-efficient and useful embedded system concepts built around ST's cutting-edge 32-bit microcontrollers, will run for 6 months and offer in excess of $10,000 in prizes to qualified participating residents of the United States and Canada.

The STM32 is the industry's largest ARM Cortex M-based microcontroller family with more than 140 device variants, suited for applications requiring real-time control or connectivity from consumer appliances and electronics, through metering and home audio, to medical and industrial networking.

ST's STM32 microcontrollers combine high performance, real-time, low-power and low-voltage operation, while maintaining full integration and ease of development. Pin-to-pin, software and development-tool compatibility across the whole family ensures full flexibility.

All STM32 Design Challenge participants will receive a valuable "Discovery kit for STM32 Design Challenge," a fully integrated hardware development platform including a USB-powered board populated with a 72MHz STM32F103RGT6 featuring 1Mbyte of Flash, integrated ST-LINK in-circuit debugger and an extension connector for accessing the STM32 peripherals, just for entering the Challenge. They will also get access to downloadable development tools from major third-party vendors including Atollic, IAR Systems® and Keil.

In the first phase, contestants will be invited to submit their STM32 design concepts in three categories, based on their design's usage of Flash memory: up to 32Kbytes, from 32K to 256 Kbytes, and from 256 Kbytes to 1 Mbyte of embedded Flash. All submissions will qualify for the second, Early Prototype Design phase of the contest, and, finally, 10 entrants will be selected to participate in the Final Prototype Design phase.

The contest jury, composed of an EE Times editor and STMicroelectronics and Digi-Key representatives, will assess the ten short-listed designs and also take into account the peer votes of advancing participants in selecting the Grand Prize winner and three runners-up. The winners will be announced at the UBM Embedded Systems Conference in Silicon Valley, the week of May 2, 2011.

"STM32 brings a new degree of freedom to embedded application developers, combining the leading performance and real-time behavior, outstanding power efficiency, a rich set of peripherals, maximum integration and an excellent tool and software ecosystem," said Stuart McLaren, Product Marketing Manager at STMicroelectronics. "The STM32 Design Challenge aims at supporting and promoting innovative design ideas in the 32-bit microcontroller space, which has become the technology of choice for high-performance embedded-control applications in all industry segments."

The STM32 Design Challenge contest is organized in cooperation with United Business Media (UBM), a leading global business media company with a broad portfolio of activities that includes EE Times, EDN and PR Newswire. Extensive cooperation has also been provided by partners Atollic, Digi-Key, IAR Systems, and Keil.

Further information and registration at www.stm32challenge.com

About Atollic

Atollic provides professional and highly integrated software development tools to the global embedded systems market. Atollic cooperates with many of the world's largest semiconductor manufacturers and has many partners in related fields. The company's products are distributed via an extensive international distributor network in over 30 countries. Atollic also offers expert software development services, primarily in the automotive, aerospace, defense, industrial and consumer markets. For more information on Atollic, please visit www.atollic.com

About Digi-Key Corporation

One of the world's fastest growing distributors of electronic components, Digi-Key has earned its reputation as an industry leader through its total commitment to service and performance. As a full-service provider of both prototype/design and production quantities of electronic components, Digi-Key has been ranked #1 for Overall Performance for 16 consecutive years from among the nation's more than 200 distributors (EE Times Distribution Study/ May 2007). Offering more than 1.7 million products from over 440 quality name-brand manufacturers Digi-Key's commitment to inventory is unparalleled. Access to the company's broad product offering is available 24/7 at Digi-Key's top-rated website, www.digikey.com.

About IAR Systems

IAR Systems is the world's leading supplier of software tools for embedded systems that enable large and small companies to develop premium products based on 8-, 16-, and 32-bit microcontrollers, mainly in the areas of industrial automation, medical devices, consumer electronics and automotive products. IAR Systems has an extensive network of partners and cooperates with the world's leading semiconductor vendors. Established in 1983, IAR Systems is part of the Intoi Group since 2005. For more information, please visit www.iar.com.

About Keil

Keil™, the tools division of ARM® makes C/C++ compilers, debuggers, integrated environments, real-time kernels, simulation models, and boards for ARM, 8051, C166, and 251 processor families. The comprehensive range supports standard microcontrollers (MCU), smartcards, application specific standard parts (ASSP), and complex system-on-chip (SoC) devices. More information on Keil is available at http://www.keil.com/.

About STMicroelectronics

STMicroelectronics is a global leader serving customers across the spectrum of electronics applications with innovative semiconductor solutions. ST aims to be the undisputed leader in multimedia convergence and power applications leveraging its vast array of technologies, design expertise and combination of intellectual property portfolio, strategic partnerships and manufacturing strength. In 2009, the Company's net revenues were $8.51 billion. Further information on ST can be found at www.st.com.

SOURCE STMicroelectronics