Misfit Wearables Chooses EFM32 Leopard Gecko to Maximize Battery Life
for the World's Most Elegant Physical Activity Monitor
AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
Silicon
Labs (NASDAQ: SLAB), a leader in high-performance, analog-intensive,
mixed-signal ICs, today announced that Misfit
Wearables, a designer and manufacturer of wearable computing
products, has chosen Silicon Labs' EFM32™
Leopard Gecko 32-bit microcontroller (MCU) as the energy-friendly
controller for the Misfit
Shine™, the world's most elegant physical activity monitor. The
Gecko MCU communicates with the Shine's 3-axis accelerometer, drives
user interface LEDs and hosts a Wicentric Bluetooth® low-energy software
stack, enabling connectivity with the Shine App running on Apple iOS
devices such as iPhones and iPads — all with the utmost energy
efficiency.
The Misfit Shine is tapping into today's burgeoning market for wearable
computing devices. According to IMS Research (a part of IHS Electronic
Media), sports and fitness monitors, running and cycling computers, and
other physical activity trackers will reach 56.2 million unit shipments
globally in 2017, up from 43.8 million units in 2013. IMS predicts that
a total of 252 million units will ship over the next five years. In a
related survey conducted by IMS last year, 62.3 percent of smartphone
owners who exercise regularly expressed an interest in mobile health and
fitness apps and fitness sensors such as the Misfit Shine that connect
to smartphone apps.
Like all portable, battery-powered devices, the Shine wearable activity
monitor requires extreme energy efficiency to maximize battery life.
Instead of using a rechargeable battery, the Shine runs on a single,
user-replaceable CR2032 lithium-ion watch battery for four months.
Instead of having to recharge the device every few days, the end user
simply wears the Shine and monitors his or her fitness activity daily
without interruption until it is time to replace the battery.
The Misfit design team chose the Leopard Gecko MCU because it provides
industry-leading energy efficiency across all energy modes, enabling
exceptionally long battery life coupled with optimal processing
performance and a high level of integration in a small-footprint
package. The Leopard Gecko MCU's low-energy sensor interface (LESENSE)
and peripheral reflex system (PRS) were especially attractive features
for Misfit's ultra-low energy budget. The LESENSE interface autonomously
collects and processes sensor data even when the MCU is in deep-sleep
mode, enabling the MCU to remain in a low-energy mode for a long time
while tracking sensor status and events. The PRS monitors complex
system-level events and allows different MCU peripherals to communicate
autonomously while keeping the CPU in an energy-saving sleep mode as
long as possible to reduce overall system power consumption.
"Achieving extreme energy efficiency in a wearable computer like the
Shine is a formidable design challenge," said Sonny Vu, CEO and
co-founder of Misfit Wearables. "We needed a 32-bit embedded controller
that could handle sophisticated algorithms, process and transmit lots of
data, interact seamlessly with a motion-sensing accelerometer and fit
within an insanely small form factor. The Leopard Gecko MCU is a perfect
match for the Shine's low-energy, data-intensive requirements, and
Silicon Labs' Simplicity Studio development tools accelerated our design
team's learning curve, meeting our critical need for fast time to
market."
Simplicity
Studio is a comprehensive graphical development environment for
EFM32 Gecko MCU applications. Available at no charge, Simplicity Studio
provides developers with one-click access to all the information,
documentation, energyAware tools, and software and source code libraries
needed to quickly develop energy-friendly applications. Key elements of
Simplicity Studio include the energyAware Profiler, an easy-to-use
debugging tool for low-energy embedded system development, and the
energyAware Designer, a tool that eases the time-consuming task of
debugging I/O pin conflicts.
"The Shine fitness monitor epitomizes elegant design inside and out, and
we are delighted to play a role in helping Misfit bring their wearable
computer to market," said Geir Førre, senior vice president and general
manager of Silicon Labs' microcontroller products. "The Shine also
represents a rapidly growing class of energy-sensitive, battery-powered,
tiny-footprint wireless devices for which our energy-friendly EFM32
Gecko MCUs are exceptionally well-suited."
About Shine
Misfit Shine is an elegant physical activity monitor that you can wear
anywhere on your body and to any occasion. Set your personal activity
goals on the Shine app and then wear Shine anywhere on your body: hip,
neck, wrist, shoes, chest, shirt, etc. Tap Shine and a halo of lights
appears through the metal shell to show your progress toward your daily
goal. It is super-strong and is water resistant to 50 meters so it is
great for swimming. It is carved out of a solid block of aircraft-grade
aluminum and is built to last a lifetime. To sync the device to your
smartphone, simply place Shine on the screen of your mobile device, and
the data is transferred in seconds. Powered by a regular coin-cell
battery which the user can easily replace by themselves, Shine lasts for
four months — no cables for syncing or charging ever. For more
information: www.misfitwearables.com/shine.
About the EFM32 Leopard Gecko MCU
The EFM32 Leopard Gecko MCU family, part of the world's most
energy-friendly MCU portfolio, features an ARM® Cortex®-M3 processor, up
to 256 kB of flash memory, optional USB connectivity, a direct-drive
TFT, CPU speeds up to 48 MHz, and the same autonomous, low-energy
peripherals found in the original Gecko family including AES encryption,
a pulse counter, low-energy UARTs, the LESENSE interface and on-chip
operational amplifiers. EFM32 Gecko MCUs are designed to achieve the
lowest system energy consumption for a wide range of Internet of Things,
green energy and portable battery-powered applications.
About Misfit Wearables
Misfit is focused on developing great wearable products: things that a
lot of people would wear all the time for a long time. A pioneer in the
emerging world of wearable products, the company is making products and
services in the consumer health and fitness space to inspire people to
be more active and develop healthy habits. Misfit's first product is the
award-winning Shine, an elegant physical activity tracker that you can
instantly sync with your smartphone just by placing the device on the
screen. Misfit was founded in 2011 by Sonny Vu with John Sculley, the
former CEO of Apple and Pepsi, and Sridhar Iyengar, co-founder and CTO
of AgaMatrix, and have Founders Fund and Khosla Ventures as lead
investors. Other investors include Norwest, OATV, Max Levchin, and
incTANK.
Silicon Labs
Silicon Labs is an industry leader in the innovation of
high-performance, analog-intensive, mixed-signal ICs. Developed by a
world-class engineering team with unsurpassed expertise in mixed-signal
design, Silicon Labs' diverse portfolio of patented semiconductor
solutions offers customers significant advantages in performance, size
and power consumption. For more information about Silicon Labs, please
visit www.silabs.com.
Cautionary Language
This press release may contain forward-looking statements based on
Silicon Labs' current expectations. These forward-looking statements
involve risks and uncertainties. A number of important factors could
cause actual results to differ materially from those in the
forward-looking statements. For a discussion of factors that could
impact Silicon Labs' financial results and cause actual results to
differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements, please
refer to Silicon Labs' filings with the SEC. Silicon Labs disclaims any
intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking
statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or
otherwise.
Note to editors: Silicon Laboratories Inc., Silicon Laboratories,
Silicon Labs, SiLabs and the Silicon Labs logo, EFM, EFM32, EFR, Energy
Micro, Energy Micro logo and combinations thereof, and "the world's most
energy friendly microcontrollers" are trademarks or registered
trademarks of Silicon Laboratories Inc. ARM, Cortex-M0/M0+/M3/M4 and
Keil are trademarks or registered trademarks of ARM Limited. All other
product names noted herein may be trademarks of their respective holders.
Follow Silicon Labs on Twitter at http://twitter.com/silabs
and on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/siliconlabs.
Explore Silicon Labs' diverse product portfolio at www.silabs.com/parametric-search.
Photos/Multimedia Gallery Available: http://www.businesswire.com/multimedia/home/20131028005069/en/
Silicon Laboratories Inc.
Dale Weisman, +1-512-532-5871
dale.weisman@silabs.com
Source: Silicon Labs
News Provided by Acquire Media