EFM32 Pearl Gecko
Silicon Labs' EFM32™ Pearl Gecko ARM® Cortex®-M4 based 32-bit microcontrollers (MCUs) provide flash memory configurations up to 256 kB, 32 kB of RAM and CPU speeds up to 40 MHz, providing a full DSP instruction set and includes a hardware FPU for faster computation performance.
SLSTK3401A¶
Silicon Labs' SLSTK3401A is an excellent starting point to get familiar with the EFM32™ Pearl Gecko 32-bit microcontrollers. The starter kit contains sensors and peripherals demonstrating some of the MCU's many capabilities and can serve as a starting point for application development. The Pearl Gecko features an on-board SEGGER J-Link debugger and an Advanced Energy Monitoring system, allowing you to program, debug and perform real-time current profiling of your application without using external tools.
Development¶
Kit firmware upgrade
Regrettably, the firmware version that was shipped on the first batch of Pearl Gecko boards wasn't mbed-enabled yet. To update your board to a firmware that supports mbed, please follow the guide here.
The following images depicts the default pin-out for this MCU on this kit. Advanced users will note that on this device any function can be routed to any pin.
Pearl Gecko Platform Features¶
- EFM32PG1B200F256 Pearl Gecko MCU
- ARM® Cortex™-M4, up to 40MHz
- 32kB RAM
- 256kB Flash
- Integrated DC/DC converter
- Integrated CRYPTO engine supporting: AES-128; AES-256; ECC; SHA-1; SHA-2
- Starter kit features
- 20 pin expansion header
- Breakout pads for easy access to I/O pins
- Power sources (USB and CR2032 battery)
- On-board peripherals
Memory LCD, capacitive touch buttons, LEDs, pushbuttons
- 2 user buttons
- 2 user LEDs
- 2 capacitive touch buttons
- 128x128 low-power Memory LCD
- Si7021 RH/temperature sensor
- Debugging and Energy Profiling
- Advanced Energy Monitoring system for precise current tracking
- Fully supported in Simplicity Studio
- mbed Online IDE exporters support for Simplicity Studio
- Integrated Segger J-Link USB debugger/emulator with debug out functionality
- Supports mbed drag-and-drop programming and virtual COM port
- Full support for the power-efficient mbed APIs
Getting started with ARM mbed and EFM32¶
Firmware Update
Using Simplicity Studio with mbed projects
Additional Resources¶
- EFM32 Pearl Gecko Data Sheet
- EFM32 Pearl Gecko Reference Manual
- EFM32 Pearl Gecko Starter Kit Quick Start Guide
- Other kit documentation (schematics, user guide) can be found in Simplicity Studio
More information¶
Learn more about Silicon Labs' EFM32 Pearl Gecko Starter Kit