GigaDevice Semiconductor () is a Chinese NOR flash memory designer. It also produces

microcontrollers A microcontroller (MCU for ''microcontroller unit'', often also MC, UC, or μC) is a small computer on a single VLSI integrated circuit (IC) chip. A microcontroller contains one or more CPUs ( processor cores) along with memory and programmabl ...

, some of them are based on the

ARM architecture ARM (stylised in lowercase as arm, formerly an acronym for Advanced RISC Machines and originally Acorn RISC Machine) is a family of reduced instruction set computer (RISC) instruction set architectures for computer processors, configured ...

(GD32 series), and other on the

RISC-V RISC-V (pronounced "risk-five" where five refers to the number of generations of RISC architecture that were developed at the University of California, Berkeley since 1981) is an open standard instruction set architecture (ISA) based on estab ...

architecture (GD32V series). GD32 chips were introduced in 2015 and are compatible in

pinout In electronics, a pinout (sometimes written "pin-out") is a cross-reference between the contacts, or ''pins'', of an electrical connector or electronic component, and their functions. "Pinout" now supersedes the term "basing diagram" that was the s ...

and periphery options to the

STM32 STM32 is a family of 32-bit microcontroller integrated circuits by STMicroelectronics. The STM32 chips are grouped into related series that are based around the same 32-bit ARM architecture, ARM processor core, such as the ARM Cortex-M#Cortex ...

line of microcontrollers.

Integrated Silicon Solution Inc. acquisition

The company participated as part of the Chinese buyer consortium Uphill Investment Co. that acquired Integrated Silicon Solution Inc., a semiconductor company that is among the major producers of NOR flash, in 2015 for US$731 million. The buyer consortium beat out an offer by

Cypress Semiconductor Cypress Semiconductor was an American semiconductor design and manufacturing company. It offered NOR flash memories, F-RAM and SRAM Traveo microcontrollers, PSoC programmable system-on-chip solutions, analog and PMIC Power Management ICs, Ca ...

, a major competitor of GigaDevice in the NOR flash market. The buyer consortium of Uphill Investment Co. comprises eTown MemTek Ltd, Summitview Capital, Beijing Integrated Circuit Design and Test Fund, and Huaqing Jiye Investment Management Co., Ltd. GigaDevice along with

Beijing ETOWN Beijing E-Town is an economic development agency of the Beijing municipal government that traces its origins to 1994 when the Beijing government chartered an entity to help foster high tech manufacturing in Beijing. E-Town supports high-tech ...

, an investment firm and economic development agency of the Beijing Municipal Government, were the equity holders of eTown MemTek Ltd.

Microcontroller products

The GD32 series of microcontrollers are based on the

ARM Cortex-M3 The ARM Cortex-M is a group of 32-bit reduced instruction set computer, RISC ARM architecture, ARM processor cores licensed by Arm Holdings. These cores are optimized for low-cost and energy-efficient integrated circuits, which have been embedd ...

core. It was introduced in 2013 and consists of six product lines: Basic, Mainstream, Value, Connectivity, Performance, and Extend. MCU frequency is in range 48-120 MHz. Some GD32 chips are pin-compatible with

series of

STMicroelectronics STMicroelectronics N.V. commonly referred as ST or STMicro is a Dutch multinational corporation and technology company of French-Italian origin headquartered in Plan-les-Ouates near Geneva, Switzerland and listed on the French stock market. ST ...

company. The GD32V series was introduced in 2019 and replaces ARM Cortex cores with custom implementation of RISC-V MCU core named "Bumblebee Core" (designed by Nuclei System Technology).

References

{{SSE 50 companies Electronics companies of China Technology companies of China Semiconductor companies of China Manufacturing companies based in Beijing Companies established in 2005 Chinese brands