LONDON — ARM has bought a supplier of software development tools for microcontrollers which operates jointly through two privately-owned companies, Keil Elektronik GmbH in Munich, Germany, and Keil Software, Inc. in Plano, Texas.

The company has 23 staff and manufactures and distributes a range of development tools including ANSI C compilers, macro assemblers, debuggers, linkers, library managers, firmware and real-time kernels.

More than 100,000 microcontroller developers are said to be using the Keil tools and the companies have combined gross assets valued at $4.6 million.

Warren East, ARM's CEO said his company, “identified the MCU market as a critical growth area for our future business and with this acquisition, we will be able to accelerate progress in that market by offering a more complete, more compelling solution. As the MCU applications shift from 8/16-bit to 32-bit solutions, the combination of the ARM Cortex-M3 processor, which was specifically designed for microcontroller applications, our RealView high-performance compiler, and Keil’s complementary MCU tools for ARM, will enable new generations of ARM MCU solutions.”

Reinhard Keil, CEO of Keil, said, “Keil and ARM have a long-standing relationship through our membership of the ARM Connected Community. We feel that with this acquisition we are in a better position to deliver complete offerings to the high-growth, 32-bit microcontroller market while continuing to support our 8051 and C16x compilers within the uVision environment.”