Wireless it is…
31
Mar
2017
As predicted last month, with Mobile World Congress, wireless it was for the MCU. Dialog is getting to BT5, SiliconLabs is beefing up its offering while TI is revamping its SimpleLink platform. Oh and we almost forgot Cypress teasing with the PSoC6 BLE 5.0. Interesting times.
We are transitioning to Microchip this month. So long Atmel, it has been a pleasure tracking your changes over time. We’ll be happy to see you on the other side (Microchip).
Dialog released 3 new products to support BlueTooth 5 this month, the DA14585 and DA14586. Both sport a Cortex-M0 running from 0.9 to 3.6V, with the former offering OTP and the latter 128 kB of Flash. Given the identical RF specifications, we suspect that these use the same die as the DA14582/3, but a different ROM code to support BT5 vs. BT4.1.
No change this month.
The merging of Atmel processor products into Microchip’s catalog is an interesting study. The plethora of Microchip’s original PIC architectures has always been dazzling; accounting for over 11,000 of the 25,000 total microcontrollers in Keremi’s multi-vendor databases. These include half a dozen 8-bit families, half a dozen 16-bit families – many integrating digital signal processing (DSP) instructions with the traditional controller operations, and three families of 32-bit MCUs in the MIPS architecture.
Atmel adds many old 8051 architecture as well as its own AVR architecture products to Microchip’s 8-bit MCUs that probably greatly overlap the applications the PIC MCUs address, with the primary uniqueness coming from instruction set distinctions. Jumping to 32-bit Atmel MCUs, Microchip is picking up a variety of ARM Cortex-M0, -M0+, -M3, and -M4 lines of MCUs – putting them in ten or so “SAM” families. There are even a few Cortex-A5 Applications Processors in the Atmel-Microchip offering. One must note that Microchip is placing a few of the Atmel lines under a classification of “Legacy”, which at least implies that little effort will be put into advancing the old ARM7TDMI-based, AVR32, and Cortex-M3-based SAM3 microcontrollers, while sending some to the NRND (Not Recommended for New Design) dungeon.
No change this month.
No change this month.
NXP had a few new parts, all pretty noteworthy in the new MK27 and MK28 families – 150MHz Cortex-M4 with 2 USB (FS and HS), a SDRAM controller, and a whooping 1MB of RAM next to 2MB of Flash. The MK28 has 3 input supply voltage rails: (1.2V, 1.8V and 3V) and a separate VBAT domain. The MK27 comes in a 169 MAPBGA package while the MK28 adds a smaller 210 WLCSP 6.9×6.9mm.
NXP cleaned out 120 part numbers, mostly in the previously-Freescale Kinetis lines of ARM-based 32-bit microcontrollers (MCUs). However, nearly all of the deleted Kinetis MCUs appear to have updated die parts that are available under a slightly different part number. It also appears that many of these parts were previously made from the same 5-year-old die mask set (with its assorted bugs). These included assorted pin/package iterations of parts noted below.
– 512kB Flash versions of the K10 (100-MHz Cortex-M4 mainstream mixed-signal MCUs with high-precision analog integration and advanced serial communications).
– A virtually identical dismissal took place in the 512kB K20 family (which adds FS USB and, often, CAN to the K10).
– A few 128kB and 256kB versions of the K10 and K20 with external memory capabilities also dropped out.
– All of those may be either a shift to the production version from the 2012 (Z) version of the product or a drop of the big-memory chip altogether.
– A similar dismissal took place in the tamper-resistant K11’s and K21’s, although those run only 50-MHz and were not tagged (Z) as the original die.
– The higher performance 120-MHz floating-point-equipped Cortex-M4 parts weren’t spared, with numerous K21F and K22F parts ceding space to an updated version (…A…)
– In the higher echelon of Cortex-M4 Kinetis, over forty K30, K40, K50, and K60 microcontrollers were removed, many bowing to an updated mask set
The Kinetis M-series MCUs, targeted at low-power flow meters with the ARM Cortex-M0+, look to be getting thinned out quite a bit, losing nine more parts, leaving only eight (most with updated mask set indicators), none of which are the higher-speed and large-Flash 256kB version.
Minuscule change was seen at Renesas.
Three dozen parts were added to the Silicon Laboratories database in the Energy Micro 32-bit lineup this month. The bulk of these are in the Silicon Labs Blue (Bluetooth LE), Flex (proprietary), and Mighty (BLE, ZigBee, & Thread) Gecko categories of radio-integrated microcontrollers. Some contain a sub-GHz transceiver, some a 2.4GHz transceiver, and others have both. Peripherals and the protocol stack run on a 40 MHz ARM Cortex-M4 assisted by some crypto engines in 1MB of Flash and 128 or 256KB of RAM.
Oh, and BTW, thank you Mr. Cooley for fixing these erroneous datasheets last month. They are pointing to the right place now.
After all that excitement, in the more mundane plain old microcontroller area, Silicon Labs released eight Jade (Cortex-M3) and Pearl (Cortex-M4) Geckos. These run an energy-friendly 40 MHz ARM Cortex-M but still offer 1MB of Flash, 256kB of RAM, and AES and SHA support along with standard peripherals including analog.
14 product appeared this month in the Cortex-M0+ PSoC4 family.Of interest to our readers is the PSoC6 teaser put on Cypress’ web site. “Purpose-built for the IoT” is the motto, promissing high performance and low-power. Oh well, we’ve heard this before. Interestingly, their pioneer kit includes a dual core PSoC6 BLE 5.0. Stay tuned.
Continuing last month’s burst, there was a lot of activity at ST Micro in March. This time, nearly all changes were in the ultra-low-power ARM Cortex-M architecture, STM32L, adding 35 part numbers.
A variety of 80-MHz Cortex-M4’s were added with a score of pin, package, and +125°C options. These ’L496 MCUs just came on the market sporting 512kB or 1024kB Flash, 320kB of SRAM, camera interface, LCD support, cap-sensing, 12-bit A/D and D/A’s, and full-speed USB OTG (on-the-go). Another half-dozen parts are the ’L4A6 variety that have the full 1MB of Flash plus add both AES and SHA hardware.
We removed the NRND parts from our database, including three-dozen STM32L151 and two-dozen STM32L152 this month – the 32-MHz Cortex-M3-based MCUs with 32, 64, or 128KB of Flash, 4KB EEPROM, 12-bit A/D and D/A’s, assorted communications channels, timers, DMA (Direct Memory Access controller), and capacitive touch sensing (the ’L152 adds an 8×40 segment LCD driver). However, many (20) of the ’L151 and ’L152’s have a “-A” equivalent that was recently added. The distinction of these “dash A” parts may result from a more aggressive fabrication process as well as circuit changes, but can include:
– Larger RAM, EEPROM
– Same packages, mounting – no printed circuit board (PCB) changes
– Various minor peripheral functionality changes
– Some program code changes necessary
– Improved power consumption
– Pricing will vary
Other removed ’L151/’L152’s can be replaced by roughly the same part which has larger memory sizes and/or richer peripheral sets that are still available.
TI did a revamp of their wireless site this month. Well, this is a bit confusing. Let us try to explain…Last month, SimpleLink had a joyous mix of MSP430, 8051 and Cortex-M parts addressing all protocols including NFC.
Now, this month SimpleLink is a platform including MCU with or without RF and an SDK composed of the RF stack, drivers, OS and the glue to TI plugins. Gone from SimpleLink are the CC430 and RF430 families, as well as all the RF+8051 parts. The platform only includes Cortex-M parts even though the Cortex-M3 CC2538 (ZigBee) got zapped out. Interestingly, the MSP432 has joined the bandwagon as the “Host MCU”. Only Bluetooth, WiFi and sub-GHz (?) are supported.
New parts are now complementing the portfolio: the WiFi CC3220, the BlueTooth CC2640 and finally the BlueTooth+sub-GHz CC1350.
As we say in Austin, let’s keep it weird.
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