Texas Instruments (TI) announced that it will expand its microcontroller (MCU) portfolio with the acquisition of Luminary Micro, the market-leading supplier of ARM Cortex-M3-based 32-bit MCUs. The addition of Luminary Micro's Stellaris® family of Cortex-M3 processors will accelerate TI's ability to provide the industry's most complete MCU portfolio. This acquisition means that customers can now enjoy the innovative capabilities of Stellaris MCUs along with the proven experience and technical strength TI brings as a global semiconductor provider.
Stellaris devices will allow TI to address mainstream 32-bit MCU markets, giving customers access to the general-purpose processing power of the industry-standard ARM Cortex-M3 core and the Stellaris family's advanced communication capabilities, including 10/100 Ethernet MAC+PHY, CAN, USB On-The-Go, USB Host/Device, SSI/SPI, UARTs, I2S, and I2C. The transaction closed on May 14, 2009.
The Stellaris family of MCUs is positioned for cost-conscious applications requiring significant control processing and connectivity capabilities, including motion control, remote monitoring, HVAC and building controls, network appliances and switches, factory automation, electronic point-of-sale machines, test and measurement equipment, medical instrumentation, and gaming equipment. The recently-announced fourth generation of Stellaris devices, the LM3S9000 Series, breaks new ground in general purpose processing performance and features new combinations of connectivity, memory configurations and advanced motion control.
