MicroEJ and NXP Collaborate to Enable Ultra Low power Optimization On The i.MX RT500 Crossover MCUs for Wearables

By Tiera Oliver

Associate Editor

Embedded Computing Design

September 01, 2021

News

MicroEJ and NXP Collaborate to Enable Ultra Low power Optimization On The i.MX RT500 Crossover MCUs for Wearables

MicroEJ announced their collaboration with NXP Semiconductors to offer a dedicated MICROEJ VEE on-device platform based on NXP’s i.MX RT500 MCU focusing on ultra-low-power, security, and user interfaces.

NXP’s i.MX RT500 crossover MCU, coupled with MICROEJ VEE platform, offers an integrated solution for holistic low-power management and small footprint while providing suitable performance and user experiences.

MICROEJ VEE’s platform based on the i.MX RT500 device allows the design of user interfaces to differentiate itself from the competition, leveraging both software and hardware graphical engines for low-power animations. With a suitable rendering (60 FPS on average) and low-power consumption (up to 40 days autonomy on a standard battery), the MicroEJ and NXP combined solution is designed to address the needs of the wearables industry.

This new platform addresses three power optimization levels:

  • Reduced active power: MICROEJ VEE provides six different power modes that adjust power consumption to save battery life (FULL, HIGH, LOW, SLEEP, SUSPEND and OFF).  Automatic voltage adjustments and optimal RAM allocations are included in the tuned solution.
  • Reduced processing time: MICROEJ VEE is designed to reduce overall complexity by scheduling multitasking and synchronizing of timers. All the generic library stacks (UI, IoT, etc.) are (re)designed to leverage the various parallel hardware execution units (Multi-cores, GPU, DMAs, PowerQuad hardware accelerator, etc.) for the NXP i.MX RT500 solution.
  • Reduced standby power: MICROEJ VEE leverages the various built-in low-power modes of NXP’s i.MX RT500 MCU, reducing voltage while in the SUSPEND power state.

MICROEJ VEE offers a low power infrastructure for both application engineers and BSP engineers. It assists the analysis and balancing between the three dimensions of a wearable system: power, footprint, and speed. Based on clear separation of concerns to reduce embedded complexity, software engineers can focus on high level logic and value addition, based on an intuitive API, with distinctive levels of power optimization.

In addition to these power optimizations, MICROEJ VEE also makes it possible to parallelize software and hardware development through virtual devices, which is designed to simplify and accelerate software development to enable product launches up to three times faster, while decreasing R&D costs by 40%, on average. Security and reliability are reinforced by the safe virtual container provided by MicroEJ that separates software components in hermetic sandboxes with customizable sets of rights.

Please join us for an informative webinar on September 15: Achieve 3x Faster Development and 40 days Battery Life on Your Wearable Designs Using MICROEJ VEE on NXP i.MX RT500 MCUs

For more info: www.microej.com

Tiera Oliver, Associate Editor for Embedded Computing Design, is responsible for web content edits, product news, and constructing stories. She also assists with newsletter updates as well as contributing and editing content for ECD podcasts and the ECD YouTube channel. Before working at ECD, Tiera graduated from Northern Arizona University where she received her B.S. in journalism and political science and worked as a news reporter for the university’s student led newspaper, The Lumberjack.

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