STMicroelectronics offering drivers to interface its MEMS devices to Linux OS

STMicroelectronics has released ready-to-use software drivers for its MEMS devices to communicate with Linux systems. ST’s new driver architecture is supported in the latest revision of Linux Kernel (from revision 3.9), which is available immediately.

ST says new driver architecture ensures robustness, maximizes sensor performance, and allows modularity and fast prototyping. Driver access is managed through a standard IIO (Industrial-IO) interface and no additional software is required to interface all the ST Motion MEMS products due to the embedded IIO driver already available into the Linux Kernel.

“The ST IIO driver modules also provide the flexibility to exchange all the ST MEMS devices without any changes at the driver level,” said Paolo Bendiscioli, Motion MEMS Application Manager at STMicroelectronics. “This solution allows faster design upgrades and helps our customers improve time to market for their new products.”

The new driver architecture works with the full ST MEMS family including accelerometers, gyroscopes, iNEMO inertial modules, e-compasses and magnetometers.

Key features of ST’s MEMS Linux Industrial IO driver library:

Optimized to support all ST MEMS device functionality
Code overhead reduction
SPI and I2C bus interoperability
FIFO embedded at driver level