Cortex-M33 steals the show
31
Mar
2019
The Cortex-M33 seems to be catching all the attention this month with 2 companies claiming firsts with it. Dialog released the DA1469x with support for BT 5.1 precision location functions. At the same time, NXP with its LPC55S6x line features one or two Cortex-M33 manufactured in a 40nm embedded flash process. ST also showed a few dozen parts of its BT MCU devices, the STM32WB. Looking forward to see these in upcoming products.
There were 30 new ATTiny products mostly with SSN/SSF suffixes. These are SOIC150 8-pin 105C/125C devices.
Dialog uncovered the DA1469x and is showing 4 products: DA14691, DA14695, DA14697 and DA14699. The core runs at up to 96MHz, with 384 or 512/16kB of RAM/cache and a decrypt-on-the-fly quad SPI to interface with external Flash memory. Dialog claims to have the first wireless MCU in production based on the ARM Cortex M33 processor. It supports the latest version of Bluetooth (5.1) including the Angle of Arrival and Angle of Departure features. Devices are offered in VFBGA86 (6×6 mm) and VFBGA100 (5×5 mm) packages.
No change.
50 new PIC32MZ were found with /GJX suffixes but not much more indication. 37 PIC1x parts were added in addition to 42 unusual dsPIC33CK parts with suffixes including M4, M5.
No change.
No change.
There was a roaster of new parts this month coming from NXP. NXP claims to have the first Cortex-M33 for Mass Market with the new LPC55S6x (sampling status) although ST has the STM32L56 in preview already. The LPC55S6x uses a 40nm Embedded Flash process and includes SRAM PUF-based root of trust and provisioning, real-time execution from encrypted images (internal flash), and asset protection with Arm TrustZone-M. It also integrates a power management IC (DC-DC) and dedicated co-processors for signal processing and cryptographic acceleration.
The first parts run at 100MHz and integrate one or two cores with 320 or 640 kB of Flash and 2 USB controllers (1 HS and one FS both with PHY).
Another improvement to the roadmap is the LPC54018/LPC54S018 that embeds either 2 or 4MB of Flash in a SiP, connecting memory and MCU through the Quad SPI interface. The S version includes additional cryptographic functions.
The Synergy S5D3 adds a new lower tier to the S5 MCU series for applications that do not require on-chip graphic acceleration or Ethernet connectivity. The 4 parts are built on a 40nm process, run at 100MHz, with enhanced security including AES, 3DES/ARC4, RSA/DSA/ECC and SHA1/SHA224/SHA256/MD5.
A set of EFR32BG1 products for bluetooth were removed due to insufficient Flash or RAM memory to support new Bluetooth Low energy features and bug fixes.
Cypress has only minor changes this month.
ST showed 32 parts (preview status) for the STM32WB, a Dual-core, multi-protocol wireless MCU. The STM32WB is based on a 64MHz Cortex‐M4 aided by a 32MHz network Cortex-M0+ and supports BT5 and 802.15.4 wireless standards. Interestingly, it can run Bluetooth™ 5 and OpenThread wireless protocols concurrently. On the peripheral side, we see a crystal-less USB 2.0 FS, LCD driver, and AES256.
TI is beefing up its FRAM MSP430FR2 value line with 32 new parts MSP430FR215x, MSP430FR235x, MSP430FR247x, MSP430FR267x.
The STM32MP1 storm
05
Mar
2019
The storm finally came from ST in the form of a single/dual 640MHz Cortex-A7 with a 209MHz Cortex-M4 co-processor. This competes heads on with the NXP i.MX7 and the RZ/G1E or RZ/G1H from Renesas. Reusing the ecosystem from the successful STM32 Cortex-M will help engineers take advantage of the low power Cortex-M4. Very exciting times.
A couple more VAO (automotive-grade) parts appeared in the ATTiny817 families as well as a few variants of existing parts, 16 in total.
On the Cortex-M based families, Microchip added 74 parts in the ATMSAMC20/1 with new package variants: VQFN64 and TQFP64.
No change.
No change.
This month, the VAO (automotive-grade) wand fell onto 13 parts, the PIC16F1xxx. No other major changes.
No change.
Nuvoton launched the M031/M032 series, based on an Cortex-M0 core with 1.8V ~ 3.6V operating voltage, 5V I/O tolerant, running up to 48/72 MHz within -40~105°C. The series provides a 12-bit ADC, comparators and up-to 24-ch 96/144 MHz PWM control, an Universal Serial Control Interface that works as UART/SPI/I²C. Flash size ranges from 16 KB to 512 KB, SRAM size from 2 KB to 96 KB. Supported packages are TSSOP20, TSSOP28, QFN33, LQFP48, LQFP64 and LQFP128. The M032 adds a crystal-less USB 2.0 FS device feature. 15 parts were released.
NXP has released a new silicon revision 1.1 of its i.MX8Mxxx series with AB suffixes, 10 parts overall.
We are seeing 18 new RX24T with extended temp (+105C).
No change this month.
Cypress has only minor changes this month.
The STM32MP1 series embeds one or 2 650MHz Cortex-A7 and a 209 MHz Cortex-M4 core running at 209MHz. The STM32MP1 supports DDR3, DDR3L, LPDDR2, LPDDR3 32/16-bit at 533MHz as well as eMMC, SD card, SLC NAND, SPI NAND and Quad-SPI NOR Flashes.
The GPU is based on OpenGL® ES 2.0 interface and native support for Linux and various application frameworks, including Android Qt. The STM32MP1 supports 24-bit parallel RGB displays up to WXGA at 60fps and MIPI® DSI with 2 data lanes running at 1Gbps.
The STM32MP1 Series embeds hardware security features including TrustZone, cryptography, hash, Secure Boot, anti-tamper pins, and a real-time clock.
The STM32MP1 also leverages advanced IPs from STM32 MCUs. STM32MP1 has 37x communication interfaces, such as 3x USB2.0 including 2x High-Speed, 1x Gigabit Ethernet GMAC, 2x CAN FD and standard I²C, UARTs and SPIs. It also comes with a range of analog peripherals including 2x 16b ADCs, 2x 12b DACs and On-chip LDOs. The STM32MP1 supports 29x timers and 3x watchdogs. Depending on packages, it can also support up to 176 GPIOs.
ST completes the chipset with the STPMIC1, a dedicated Power-Management IC (PMIC) that integrates four DC/DC buck converters, six LDOs, a DC/DC boost converter, and USB VBUS and general-purpose power switches, creating a space and BOM savings to supply all required power rails for the STM32MP1 and for other components on the board. Using power-consumption optimization, the STPMIC1 is an ideal companion chip for the STM32MP1 Series in battery-powered applications.
The OpenSTLinux Distribution supports development on the STM32MP1’s Cortex-A7 cores and contains important elements that include Linux BSP, kernel, drivers, boot chain, and secure OS (OP-TEE: Trusted Execution Environment).
3 developer software packages are available:
Starter Package (STM32MP1Starter) to quickly and easily start with any STM32MP1 microprocessor device
Developer Package (STM32MP1Dev) to add your own developments on top of the STM32MP1 Embedded Software distribution
Distribution Package (STM32MP1Distrib) to create your own Linux® distribution, your own Starter, and your own Developer packages
STM32CubeMX facilitates software and hardware configuration of both the Cortex-A7 and Cortex-M4 cores. It handles C-code generation for the M4 core, DDR SDRAM interface configuration, and tuning tool. It can also generate Linux Device trees.
STM32MP1 part numbers are in production now, starting at $4.84/10k.
No change this month.
| Sign up for our newsletter |