STMicroelectronics (ST), a global semiconductor leader serving customers across the spectrum of electronics applications, and Tapko Technologies, a leader in KNX solutions for home and building control, have released a KNX communication stack for all ST’s STM8 and STM32 microcontrollers. This initiative will speed up development of smart-building systems for automatic lighting, heating and other environmental controls that help enhance energy efficiency and user comfort.
The move addresses a market estimated at over 600 million Euros in Europe alone, and allows engineers to leverage the advanced capabilities of ST’s STM8 and STM32 microcontroller families for innovative residential or commercial building-automation products. Over 500 variants are available, including ultra-low-power STM8L and STM32L devices, maximising the freedom to optimise price, power consumption and functionality.
KNX is currently used in over 70% of European smart-home devices. As an open standard, KNX promotes interoperability, saves costs and enhances flexibility for product developers and equipment owners. Now managed by the KNX Association, it is ratified as CENELEC EN 50090 or CEN EN 13321-1 in Europe, GB/Z 20965 in China, ANSI/ASHRAE 135 in the USA, and globally as ISO/IEC 14543-3.
“With ST’s large families of 8-bit and 32-bit microcontrollers now readily available to the KNX community, we expect to see even more widespread deployment within Europe and worldwide of smart-building systems that help reduce the energy usage and environmental impact of homes, offices and factories everywhere” said Petar Tomic, CEO of Tapko Technologies GmbH.
“The STM8 and STM32 families offer advanced features, extremely low energy consumption and extensive compatibility between devices, families and software helping to minimise development costs and time to market” said Michel Buffa, Microcontroller Division Manager, STMicroelectronics. “With the KNX stack now also ported, our customers can leverage this popular protocol to create competitive, high-performing smart-building solutions.”
ST’s 8-bit STM8 microcontrollers and 32-bit STM32 ARM Cortex devices provide powerful features such as an LCD controller, motor-control timers, Power-On Reset, real-time clock, memory-protection unit, dual watchdogs, anti-tamper protection, embedded EEPROM, fast and low power analogue to digital converter, flexible DMA matrix and optimized power consumption modes for battery-operated applications. The STM8L and STM32L best-in-class ultra-low power is the result of ST’s 130nm and 110nm low-leakage process, unique design techniques ensuring high performance from a voltage supply as low as 1.65V, and multiple power-management modes with fast wake-up.
In addition, the high-performance STM32F2 series, which features up to 1MB Flash, Ethernet MAC and hardware encryption, provides support for KNX tunnelling over IP allowing secure communication with smart-building systems via the Internet.
