PSoC6 BLE coming out of the woods
30
Sep
2017
Cypress has released more information on its PSoC6 architecture with 18 parts disclosed of which 12 support Bluetooth 4.2. Initial specs seems to indicate very good RF performance with -95dB sensitivity and 4.2/4.4 mA TX/RX current consumption for a complex Cortex-M4 + Cortex-M0+ combo. Our heavyweights SiliconLabs and Dialog are already entranched with Cortex-M4 and Cortex-M0 respectively. This is just the beginning of the battle and we expect more to jump in BT as well as Wifi to support the even increasing use cases of the IoT.
A few minor removals happened on the ATTiny10 while the new AT89LP51RB2-20AU appeared. On the Cortex-M front, the only change was the addition of the ATSAMD10D14A-MUTB5, a “B5” version of the same. It is likely a custom version.
No change.
No change.
Microchip added close to 150 products to its portfolio, and here is the split:
- 22 (22 for LF) PIC16(L)F19155/56 with respectively 14/28 kB of Flash, 8MHz
- 16 (16) PIC16(L)F19175/76 with respectively 14/28 kB of Flash, 8MHz, about $0.15 more than 55/56, larger package, more I/O and ADC channels
- 10 (10) PIC16(L)F19185/86 with respectively 14/28 kB of Flash, 8MHz, about $0.30 more than 75/76, larger package, more I/O and ADC channels
- 50 PIC32MZ0512/1024/2028 are the high end MIPS M4K-based 200/250MHz beasts sporting respectively 512/104/2048 kB of Flash as well as Ethernet and HS USB with PHY. 1MB to 2MB price increase is ~$1 while +512kB is about $0.5, makes sense…
Interestingly, with such power, they don’t have integrated support for LCD so their competition is reduced in their target segment as long as their LCD counterparts are more expensive.
The DSPIC33 lost 16 parts while the PIC24 just 10.
No change.
No change.
No change.
No significant changes this month at Renesas RX and RL78.
No change.
6 months after unveiling the PSoC6 architecture, Cypress is finally releasing more open information on the family.
The PSoC 6 MCU architecture is built on a low power 40nm process, embeds a Cortex-M4 and an optional Cortex-M0+ core. Active power consumption can be as low as 22-µA/MHz (M4) and 15-µA/MHz (M0+).
The PSoC6 is comprised of 4 lines:
- PSoC60 – value line: only a 50MHz Cortex-M4 and basic CapSense with a max of 128/512kB of RAM/Flash.
- PSoC61 – programmable(?) line: boosts frequency to 150MHz and memory to 288/1024 kB of RAM/Flash with additional CapSense features, crypto acceleration and USB.
- PSoC62 – performance line: adds a 100MHz Cortex-M0+ and a full trusted execution environment. 6 parts were released.
- PSoC63 – connectivity line: add BLE including its PHY and doubles the memory footprint. 12 parts are available. If we dig deeper, it is interesting to see that the PSoC63 distinctive feature is BLE. If it can run a full BLE stack on a Cortex-M4 at 50MHz, how will the integration with the application code happen is an open question. The PSoC63 borrows lower features from the other lines, in particular:
- PSoC631: only a Cortex-M4 running at 50MHz, optional crypto, no Capsense
- PSoC633: Cortex-M4 running at 150MHz, no crypto, optional Cortex-M0+ and Capsense
- PSoC634: full house
Cypress also added 5 parts on the S6E1C32B0AGU family, but the company is pretty mum about the specs. The S6E1C332 is traditionally a Cortex-M0+ runnig at 40 MHz with 64 or 128 kB of Flash.
We’ll know more next month.
ST sprinkled changes through the portfolio including new packages to the STM32F0, STM32F3, STM32F4, STM32F7 (TFBGA). The STM32L471 got a high temp (+105C) as well.
No change
NXP continues updates
31
Aug
2017
The US had its fair share of events in the past weeks with the solar eclipse and Harvey hitting south Texas hard. Austin, TX the former headquarter of Freescale stayed dry and the MCU team there, was the most active of the MCU manufacturers we track. Happy labor day for our US-based readers.
If you, while on the beach, have missed out our previous newsletter, check out interesting changes at Microchip and NXP and a nice article on ST, here.
In the Cortex-M class, 6 products were added, in the ATSAM4S (new packages) and ATSAM51J18 (256/128 kB Flash/RAM) families.
No change.
XMC1301T038X0064ABXUMA2 and XMC1302T038X0064ABXUMA2 got a new silicon revision (prefix 2 vs. 1).
The DSPIC33EP128MC502 got +105C versions while the PIC18(L)F45K2 was given a TQFP44 package. A similar process happened to the PIC18(L)F55K2/PIC18(L)F56K2 with a TQFP48 package.
31 products overall were added.
No change.
No change.
NXP continues to beef up its LPC84X family – recall it is a 30 MHz Cortex-M0+ MCU with 64/8 or 64/16 kB of Flash/RAM, and 12-bit DAC and ADC. The new flavors include HVQFN48/33 and LQFP48 packages to complement the existing LQFP64, 6 new variants were introduced.
The MKS22 was added too, essentially a MK22 with 2 CAN. We were expecting to see some severe crypto elements (MKS), but found no clear differentiators on that front. The K8x is the secure one. Interestingly, the MKS22 doesn’t appear on the Kinetis family page. You have to go through the product selector instead. We’ll assume that the web team is working on it.
Finally, the MKV42 received a LQFP48 package.
No significant changes this month at Renesas RX and RL78.
The Busy Bee EFM32BB received new package options while the EFM32 and Wireless families stayed quiet.
No change.
ST released a SO8 package for the STM8S00 and the STM8S20 got some new temperature variants. We saw a WLCSP option for the STM32F038/058 and 125C for the STM32L451CC.
Texas Instruments extended the MSP430FR2 to the bottom with down to 512 B of FRAM and 16/24 pins versions.
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