STMicroelectronics
More info
- Released
- 1987
- Type
- Semiconductor manufacturer
- Predecessor
- SGS Microelettronica, Thomson Semiconducteurs
Franco-Italian chip giant, best known to developers for STM32 — the microcontroller found on half the hobbyist workbenches and a good share of industry.
The company was formed in 1987 when Italy's state-owned SGS Microelettronica merged with France's Thomson Semiconducteurs, and it traded as SGS-Thomson until 1998. Headquarters are in Geneva, and the two governments remain major shareholders — a piece of European industrial policy that, unlike most, actually worked.
The catalogue runs from power transistors and automotive electronics to motion sensors, but for programmers it means STM32: a family of microcontrollers built on ARM Cortex-M cores, launched in 2007 and now the default pick once an 8-bit part runs out of room. The competition is NXP, Infineon and Texas Instruments.