AUSTIN, Texas, February 24 /PRNewswire/ --

- Specifically for use with Stellaris Microcontrollers, New Software 
Library Provides Appliance OEMs a Fast Path to Best-in-Class Safety 
Compliance

Luminary Micro, creators of the award-winning Stellaris(R) family of
ARM(R) Cortex(TM)-M3-based microcontrollers (MCUs), announced today a
StellarisWare(TM) software suite extension to complement the safety features
of Stellaris microcontrollers and to provide Stellaris-based household
appliance OEMs the ability to achieve Class B compliance with the
International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC)'s 60730 safety standard
provisions. StellarisWare is a powerful, royalty-free software suite offered
completely in source code that simplifies peripheral control of Stellaris
microcontrollers and speeds time to market. StellarisWare is licensed free
for use with Stellaris microcontrollers.

"We are pleased to offer the Self-Test Library addition to our
StellarisWare software suite. It nicely complements the hardware safety
features of current and upcoming Stellaris microcontrollers," said Jean Anne
Booth, CMO at Luminary Micro. "The library will aid our customers in their
ability to get quality, safety-compliant Stellaris-based products into market
in an adroit and cost-effective fashion."

In order for an appliance product to achieve Class B compliance, OEMs
must test specific components of the product before shipping the product into
the market, and the final product applications must regularly self-test
during normal operation. Table H.11.12.7 in Annex H of the IEC60730 standard
lists the MCU components to be tested, the faults to be detected, and the
appropriate reactive measures. The components include the CPU, interrupts,
clocking, memory, communications, analog to digital converters, and internal
address and data paths. These components are covered by the Self-Test Library
provided by Luminary Micro for Stellaris microcontrollers. As a library, it
is easy for manufacturers to test specifically the components that are used
by the application, and to handle faults in a way that is appropriate to the
application (for example, braking to shut down a motor application).

Current and future Stellaris microcontrollers are designed specifically
for safety-critical industrial and consumer applications, offering integrated
features such as high-reliability automotive-grade flash memory, up to two
watchdog timers that take advantage of the non-maskable interrupt (NMI)
handler safety feature of the ARM Cortex-M3 processor, and deterministic,
fast interrupt processing through the nested vectored interrupt controller
(NVIC). Some Stellaris family members also offer an integrated precision
oscillator to supply an independent time base when periodic safety tests are
executed. In addition, select Stellaris microcontrollers include ROM
preloaded with a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) function, which is especially
useful in verifying the contents of the Stellaris microcontroller's memory.

The advanced motion control of Stellaris microcontrollers also integrates
important safety features, such as fault conditioning for each of the four
motion-control PWM output pairs in order to provide quick motor shutdown in
low latency situations and quadrature encoder inputs for precise closed-loop
control. From an analog standpoint, Stellaris microcontrollers feature analog
comparators to trigger Stellaris' accurate analog-to-digital converter and to
trigger an interrupt when needed, which is useful for infrequent out-of-range
events such as a current or voltage spike. This Stellaris capability
eliminates the performance-wasting requirement of constant CPU polling. In
addition, Stellaris microcontrollers feature an internal temperature sensor,
which can be used to monitor and shut down an appliance if the appliance
overheats. Finally, the Stellaris family offers highly synchronized
connectivity features for precision internetworking, such as a fully
integrated 10/100 Ethernet MAC/PHY augmented with hardware assisted IEEE 1588
Precision Time Protocol (PTP) capability, and up to three integrated
Controller Area Network (CAN) 2.0 MACs. These features, along with the vast
range of other features in the Stellaris family, favorably position the
microcontrollers into cost-conscious applications requiring significant
control processing, connectivity, and safety capabilities, such as cooking
products, washing/drying machines, dishwashers, refrigerators and freezers,
HVAC controls, motor controls, vacuum cleaners, building access, lifts and
elevators, medical instrumentation, and gaming devices.

About Luminary Micro and Stellaris

Luminary Micro, Inc. designs, markets and sells ARM Cortex-M3-based
microcontrollers (MCUs). Austin, Texas-based Luminary Micro is the lead
partner for the Cortex-M3 processor, delivering the world's first silicon
implementation of the Cortex-M3 processor. Stellaris mixed-signal
microcontrollers contain specialized capabilities for applications in energy,
security, and connectivity markets. With the world's largest selection of
ARM-based microcontrollers, Luminary Micro's Stellaris family allows for
standardization that eliminates future architectural upgrades or software
tools changes.

Stellaris and the Luminary Micro logo are registered trademarks, and
StellarisWare is a trademark of Luminary Micro, Inc. or its subsidiaries in
the United States and other countries. All other brands or product names are
the property of their respective holders.

Luminary Micro Company Contact:
    Jean Anne Booth / CMO / +1-512-917-3088 mobile / +1-512-279-8801 office /
    JeanAnne.Booth@LuminaryMicro.com