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Atmel ARM- and AVR-based Microcontrollers Power Secret Labs' Ultra-low-power Smart Watch

21st May 2013

ES Admin

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Atmel today announced that Secret Labs' recently launched 'AGENT' smart watch is powered by Atmel's SAM4S and tinyAVR microcontrollers. The AGENT smart watch combines SAM4S and tinyAVR MCUs to deliver extended battery life for the user, consuming less than half the power of competing solutions.

Extremely low power consumption is achieved through Atmel's patented picoPower technology in the tinyAVR microcontroller, combined with the low-power RAM retention capabilities of the SAM4S microcontroller. The tinyAVR MCU handles maintenance tasks and events while the SAM4S ARM-based MCU handles the operating system and watch apps. This combination optimizes power use and enables the larger SAM4S microcontroller to remain in sleep mode for as long as possible. Additionally, the new smart watch intelligently switches into airplane mode when remaining battery life reaches 10 percent, enabling traditional watch functionality even in low-battery conditions.

We are excited to launch the most energy-efficient and easy-to-program smart watch, said Chris Walker, Founder, Secret Labs. With Atmel's microcontrollers, we are delivering an extremely low-power watch with rich capabilities. And for application developers, we offer a free software development kit, making it easy to develop watch apps that enrich users' lives.

AGENT is a battery-powered smart watch with a 1.28-inch outdoor-readable display, wireless charging and Bluetooth 4.0. The watch also displays notifications from your smartphone and can integrate with third-party smartphone apps. The new smart watch features an anti-glare glass lens and accent-stitched 22mm wrist strap.

We are seeing more consumers adopt smart watches to simplify their busy lives, said Andreas Eieland, Sr. Product Marketing Manager, Atmel Corporation. We are thrilled Secret Labs has selected Atmel MCUs to power its next-generation smart watch family. By combining our AVR- and ARM-based microcontrollers, we can deliver the right power performance for this new smart device. And we expect the SDK for third party developers will enable the creation of a new wave of apps that will radically simplify consumers' lives and add entirely new kinds of entertainment. We look forward to collaborating on future designs with Secret Labs.