Top and bottom waves growing bigger in 2024
23
Dec
2023
Renesas adds more graphics power to its RA8 Cortex-M85 based group with 11 more parts in the RA8D1 group, while Infineon announced the PSoC Edge family based on the Cortex-M55. Be prepared in 2024 for more announcements on ML/AI at the edge.
At the opposite end of the spectrum, Texas Instruments confirms its come back on the MCU scene with a whooping $0.204/1ku Cortex-M0+.
Revolution next year will continue at the top and the bottom.
Infineon announced last month the PSoC™ Edge family, dubbed “the next generation of MCUs for Machine Learning”
It is designed for applications that require hardware-assisted machine learning (ML) acceleration. The family includes multi-core products with the following main compute elements:
- A Cortex-M55 with Helium DSP support paired with Arm® Ethos™-U55
- A Cortex-M33 paired with Infineon’s ultra-low power NNLite neural network accelerator
Lead devices are built in ultra-low power 22-nm embedded-RRAM technology. PSoC Edge is available for early access customers now.
No information on the products portfolio has been shared yet.
Microchip announced the AVR EB family to support motor applications across consumer, automotive and industrial markets.
Many designers select Brushless DC (BLDC) motors to increase device longevity and lessen Noise, Vibration and Harshness (NVH).
AVR EB MCUs can adjust speed, timing and waveform shape—creating sinusoidal and trapezoidal waveforms—to improve the smoothness of motor operations, reduce noise and increase efficiency at high speeds.
AVR EB MCU key features include:
- New 16-bit Timer/Counter E (TCE) with four compare channels for Pulse-Width Modulation (PWM) and Waveform Extension (WEX) for smooth BLDC motor control with tunable dead band insertion
- New 24-bit Timer/Counter F (TCF) for flexible and accurate frequency generation and timing
- New Programming and Debug Interface Disable for advanced code security
50 products were released.
No change.
Nuvoton released the NuMicro NUC1263 series 32-bit microcontroller, based on the Cortex-M23. It supports a LED Light Strip Interface (LLSI), I3C, and USB2.0 full-speed device. Parts run up to 72 MHz and feature 64kBytes of Flash, 20 kBytes of SRAM, 2.5V ~ 5.5V wide operating voltage, and -40°C ~+105°C operating temperature.
4 parts were added.
No change.
Renesas announced the RA8D1 MCU group, a higher performance sibling to the recent RA8M1 both featuring the Cortex-M85 core running at 480MHz.
The RA8D1 adds a high-resolution TFT-LCD controller with parallel RGB and MIPI-DSI interfaces, 2D drawing engine, 16-bit camera interface, and multiple external memory interfaces, optimized to address the needs of diverse graphics and Vision AI applications.
These MCUs are available in 176 and 224 pin packages. Secure Element-like functionality is built-in with advanced cryptographic Security IP, immutable storage, a true secure boot, and tamper protection, for truly secure IoT.
11 parts were added with 1 or 2 MB of Flash.
No change.
ST had only minor changes to its portfolio.
TI extended its Cortex-M0+ portfolio with 16 new products in the MSPM0G11/15 and 35 groups. See below for the full portfolio. Source: Texas Instruments.
Prices now start at a whooping $0.204 per part at 1,000 volume break for the MSPM0C1104.
Renesas announces first products with the Cortex-M85
29
Nov
2023
Renesas beat everyone to the finish with the announcement of a new group of MCUs – the RA8M1 – based on the Cortex-M85. The newish ARM architecture (disclosed in 2020 and 2022) sports the Helium architecture that significantly boosts machine learning and digital signal processor tasks. This is a boon for the so-called Edge AI, where complex AI algorithms are made available close to the action, allowing more local intelligence and reducing the need to stream data to a server.
No significant changes.
Microchip added parts on a few families:
- The dsPIC33CDVL for motor control, with Full-Bridge MOSFET Gate Driver and LIN Transceiver
- PIC18F2xQ71 and Q83, with a dedicated developer page for the Q71 now
No change.
Nuvoton is quiet this month after a prolific October where they released the Cortex-M23 M2L31 Series for Motor Control.
No change.
It looks like Renesas beat everyone to the market with the first part numbers sporting a Cortex-M85.
Renesas hinted at the product at embedded world earlier this year. A few months later, it has now been announced as the RA8M1 group.
The RA8M1 delivers over 3000 CoreMark points at 480 MHz, targets high-performance and compute-intensive applications in Industrial Automation, Home Appliances, Smart Home, Consumer, Building/Home Automation and Medical/Healthcare market segments.
Here are the specifications for the group:
- 480MHz Arm® Cortex®-M85 with Helium™ MVE, TrustZone
- 1MB – 2MB Flash memory and 1MB of SRAM including TCM
- 32KB I/D Caches and 12KB Data Flash
- External memory interfaces (CS/SDRAM)
- Renesas Secure IP (RSIP-E51A)
- Scalable from 100-pin to 224-pin packages
- Ethernet, USB 2.0 HS/FS and CAN-FD, Octo SPI
The Cortex-M55 and M85 both feature the ARM Helium technology (M-Profile Vector Extension – MVE) designed for the Cortex-M processor series. It is an optional extension in the Armv8.1-M architecture and focuses on ML and DSP applications for embedded devices. The M55 was announced in 2020 while the M85 appeared in April 2022.
Helium technology is based on Single-Instruction Multiple Data (SIMD) operations, with a vector size of 128-bit wide, and adds over 150 new scalar and vector instructions.
It brings quite a boost to the Cortex-M7 for compute intensive applications (source: ARM).
Renesas introduced 10 parts, with Digikey and Mouser stocking them up. Prices are around $10/1k for 1MB of Flash (e.g. the R7FA8M1AFECBD#BC0).
At the opposite end of the spectrum, SiLab wants to keep the 8-bit alive.
“The EFM8BB5 family is optimized for small form factor, low-cost applications that don’t need the added complexity or cost of a 32-bit solution. 8-bit MCUs have been a key tool for designers who are looking for simple solutions to the increasing complexity seen in embedded development. While other MCU manufacturers are pushing these designers to 32-bit solutions, Silicon Labs is investing in our 8-bit microcontroller portfolio to keep this tool in the engineer’s tool box.”
18 products were announced.
ST added the STM32WL33xx, a 64 MHz Cortex-M0+ wireless MCU in the sub-GHz band, with up to 256kB Flash and 32kB RAM.
The STM32WL33xx embeds an LCD driver, 12-bit, 8 channel ADC, analog comparator, DAC, LC sensor controller, RTC, IWDG, general purpose timers, AES-128, RNG, CRC, communication interfaces such as USART, SPI, and I2C. The STM32WL33xx comes in different package versions supporting up to 32 I/Os for the VFQFPN48 package and 17 I/Os for the VFQFPN32 package.
17 parts are available.
Note: it looks like ST is working on a Cortex-M55 part, according to this post.
TI continues its deployment of more Cortex-M0+ MSPM0L/G parts, 20 in total with 5 in production and 15 sampling.
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