IRVINE, Calif., July 22, 2011 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Microsemi Corporation (Nasdaq:MSCC), a leading provider of semiconductor solutions differentiated by power, security, reliability and performance, today announced its award-winning SmartFusion® customizable system-on-chip (cSoC) devices are now supported by FreeRTOSTM (www.freertos.org), a scale-able real time kernel designed specifically for small embedded systems, and can be used in any type of application.
FreeRTOS is an extremely popular and professionally developed kernel that can be used in commercial applications, completely free of charge, without any requirement to expose proprietary source code. With FreeRTOS product developers have access to a broader choice of operating systems and communication protocols for implementation on SmartFusion cSoCs, enabling the acceleration of their designs in industrial and networking applications.
According to Gartner, Inc., a provider of research and analysis on the global information technology industry, the worldwide consumption of programmable devices such as SmartFusion cSoCs is expected to grow from approximately $5 billion in 2011 to $7.7 billion in 2015—with much of that growth in the industrial market.
"Expanding our portfolio with FreeRTOS will help support the adoption of SmartFusion cSoCs and allow us to better serve our growing customer base," said Rich Kapusta, vice president terrestrial products, SoC Products Group at Microsemi. "With significant increases in the industrial market's SoC consumption over the next several years, this will be a key area for SmartFusion cSoCs as we continue to focus on providing our customers with solutions that meet and anticipate their design needs."
SmartFusion cSoCs are the only devices that integrate an FPGA, an ARM Cortex-M3 processor and programmable analog, enabling full customization, IP protection and ease-of-use. Based on Microsemi's proprietary flash process, SmartFusion devices are ideal for hardware and embedded designers who need a true SoC that gives more flexibility than traditional fixed-function microcontrollers, without the excessive cost of soft processor cores on traditional FPGAs.
Microsemi is offering design examples for its SmartFusion evaluation and development kits with FreeRTOS support to qualified customers at no charge, including sample implementations available for Keil, IAR and GCC. For more information, visit www.microsemi.com/soc
About Microsemi
Microsemi Corporation (Nasdaq:MSCC) offers a comprehensive portfolio of semiconductor solutions for: aerospace, defense and security; enterprise and commercial; and industrial and alternative energy markets. Products include high-performance, high-reliability analog and RF devices, mixed-signal and RF integrated circuits, configurable SoCs, FPGAs, and complete subsystems. Microsemi is headquartered in Irvine, Calif., and has more than 2,800 employees globally.Learn more at www.microsemi.com.
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"Safe Harbor" Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: Any statements set forth in this news release that are not entirely historical and factual in nature, including without limitation statements related to FreeRTOS, its use with SmartFusion, and its potential effects on future business, are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based on our current expectations and are inherently subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements. The potential risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, such factors as rapidly changing technology and product obsolescence, potential cost increases, variations in customer order preferences, weakness or competitive pricing environment of the marketplace, uncertain demand for and acceptance of the company's products, adverse circumstances in any of our end markets, results of in-process or planned development or marketing and promotional campaigns, difficulties foreseeing future demand, potential non-realization of expected orders or non-realization of backlog, product returns, product liability, and other potential unexpected business and economic conditions or adverse changes in current or expected industry conditions, difficulties and costs of protecting patents and other proprietary rights, inventory obsolescence and difficulties regarding customer qualification of products. In addition to these factors and any other factors mentioned elsewhere in this news release, the reader should refer as well to the factors, uncertainties or risks identified in the company's most recent Form 10-K and all subsequent Form 10-Q reports filed by Microsemi with the SEC. Additional risk factors may be identified from time to time in Microsemi's future filings. The forward-looking statements included in this release speak only as of the date hereof, and Microsemi does not undertake any obligation to update these forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances.