Free KickStart Tools from IAR Systems Available for Luminary Micro Stellaris® Microcontrollers

32kB code-limited KickStart edition of IAR Embedded Workbench fully supports 14 of Luminary’s Stellaris ARM® Cortex™-M3-based microcontrollers

December 21, 2006 -- IAR Systems, which introduced the first independent development tools for Luminary Micro’s ARM Cortex-M3-based Stellaris family of microcontrollers earlier this year, today announces the free availability of its IAR Embedded Workbench KickStart edition for three series of microcontrollers in the Stellaris family – the 100, 300 and 600 series. The new KickStart edition boasts a 32kB compiler, which fully supports all of the available on-chip flash for 14 of the 19 Stellaris MCUs currently in the market.

Luminary Micro is a fabless semiconductor company that designs, markets, and sells ARM Cortex-M3 processor-based microcontrollers (MCUs) and was the first to bring ARM for $1.00 to embedded developers. The company currently has 19 Stellaris MCUs available within four series: the 100, 300, and 600 that feature on-chip flash in ranges up to 32kB; and the 64kB on-chip flash 800 series. With this KickStart release, only the 64kB-flash Stellaris 800 series devices are not fully supported with fully featured free commercial grade evaluation tools.

Earlier this year, the KickStart edition of the IAR Embedded Workbench for ARM (EWARM) was code-limited to 8kB, but the larger on-chip flash memory on the latest microcontrollers from Luminary calls for larger evaluation versions of the software development tools in order to take advantage of the full power available. The new larger compiler allows a thorough evaluation of the device and the tool chain itself, using a fairly complex application that utilises a richer feature set.

Today’s announcement augments availability of Stellaris tools:

Available from IAR at www.iar.com/contact :

· The free KickStart version of IAR Embedded Workbench for ARM (or download from www.iar.com/ewarm);

· IAR KickStart Kits for Stellaris.

Available through Luminary Micro’s global sales channel (www.luminarymicro.com/sales):

· Stellaris Development Kits which include the free KickStart edition of IAR Embedded Workbench for ARM; and

· KickStart Kits for Stellaris.

“Getting started with ARM-powered embedded systems development is now more affordable than ever before,” said Jean Anne Booth, CMO of Luminary Micro. “The combination of Stellaris microcontrollers, with pricing starting at just $1 each, and a free commercial grade tool chain, makes the migration of embedded designs from proprietary 8- and 16-bit microcontrollers to the popular ARM architecture a simple, easy, and cost-effective decision to make.”