The C8051F9xx uses innovative techniques and advanced IP (Intellectual Property) blocks in order to achieve maximum power savings. The low drop-out regulator (LDO) is key to increasing battery lifetime because it enables the C8051F912 to maintain a low, constant active current over the full operating voltage range.  For example, in 2 x AA/AAA and coin cell battery applications, the batteries operate near their 3 V initial voltage most often. Unfortunately for the competition, their MCUs consume around 50% more current when operating at 3 V compared to their 1.8 V minimum operating condition. As was shown earlier, this required end users to change batteries more frequently. The C8051F9xx integrates a highly efficient DC/DC converter capable of operation down to 0.9V, thus enabling lower system cost by reducing board space when moving to a single cell battery implementation. The integrated DC/DC converter is capable of driving external components such as LEDs, sensors or transceivers up to 65mW and has a programmable output voltage ranging from 1.8 to 3.3V. In general, competing devices only operate down to 1.8 V and often have analog and CPU speed limitations below 2.2V, which further reduces battery lifetime. The C8051F9xx implements an advanced power management unit (PMU) to limit leakage, allowing for low sleep currents even when using standard 0.18µm CMOS technology. Other devices on the market use 0.25µm or 0.35µm technology to reduce the sleep current at the expense of higher active current, or use 0.18µm technology to reduce the active current at the expense of poor sleep current.