Aided by these accelerating STM8 sales, ST's share of the general-purpose microcontroller market has grown to 12.7% in 2015 from 8.2% in 2013, according to World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS).

"The STM8 has become one of the world's most popular microcontrollers, and is a sturdy pillar of our strategy," said Daniel Colonna, Microcontrollers Marketing Director, STMicroelectronics. "As with all of our MCUs, we are committed to supporting STM8 for the long term, and we'll continue to strengthen our market position."

The STM8 provides an economical and efficient electronic brain for smart devices in daily use throughout the world, such as white goods, consumer products, automotive control units (ECUs), and industrial controls.

It combines class-leading computing power and competitive pricing with support for memory-efficient coding, low power consumption, high feature integration, versatile configurations, and an outstanding development ecosystem that facilitates design, debug, and prototyping.

In addition, built-in memory cycling and error checking, as well as high reliability for automotive applications, have made STM8 a benchmark for robust embedded performance.

The large number of devices shipped reflects the microcontroller's appeal to OEMs serving high-volume markets, and the work of ST's distributors worldwide who have helped design STM8 devices into a wide variety of projects.

Sales performance has been particularly impressive in China through ST's top microcontroller distributors, Willas-Array, Wintech and Yosun, targeting products for the country's domestic market as well as for export.