Semiconductor Products Insight

Semiconductor Products Insight

NXP’s $3 500 MHz Cortex-M7

11

Jan

2021

NXP and Dialog stole the show this month with on one side, Dialog’s most advanced wireless MCU (including a dual core Cortex-M33 and Cortex-M0+) and on the other, NXP continuing to please us with low-cost Flashless sub $3 and $6 Cortex-M7 parts running at respectively 500MHz and 1GHz. What more can we ask for?
Let’s not forget Microchip who is sneaking a Cortex-M0+ under a PIC32 skin. For all of us who thought PIC32 prefixes meant MicroActiv or M4k cores…


Dialog
Dialog released the SmartBond™ DA1469x family, Dialog’s most advanced, feature rich range of multi-core microcontroller units for wireless connectivity. This is the first Cortex-M33-based family as Dialog has mostly relied on Cortex-M0 and M0+ until now – all products of the family include both a Cortex-M0+ and a Cortex-M33.
The family consists of 4 parts increasing in features:

  • DA14691: 384kB RAM, USB
  • DA14695: 512kB RAM, adds LCD, charger and Quad SPI
  • DA14697: 512kB RAM, adds White LED, LRA/ERM (haptic actuators)
  • DA14699: 512kB RAM, adds a motor controller

The DA1669x has a configurable MAC with support for proprietary 2.4 GHz and BLE 5.2 protocols, opening up new possibilities such as accurate positioning for Real Time Location Systems (RTLS) and low latency communication exchange for applications like gaming.
Finally, the DA1469x family features a PMU eliminating the need for a separate PMIC and reducing the overall system size.

Infineon
No change.
Microchip
Microchip had over 160 new OPN this month all across the board (and removed 90 of them too):

  • The PIC24FJ GP2/GU2 family offers 32 and 64KB of ECC Flash, 8KB of RAM, along with several core independent peripherals (CIPs) and Full Speed USB 2.0 Host/Device/OTG. (~80 parts)
  • ATSAMC/D, a couple dozen additions, but no new family
  • ATtiny1624: AVR® CPU with hardware multiplier – running at up to 20MHz and with 16 KB Flash, 2 KB SRAM and 256 bytes of EEPROM in a 14-pin TSSOP and SOIC packages. The family uses the latest Core Independent Peripherals with low power features including Event System, intelligent analog and advanced peripherals (~20 parts).
  • We did not really this one coming: a PIC32 device with a Cortex-M core…
    PIC32CM series of 5V Cortex-M0+ devices is designed for consumer, commercial, industrial and automotive applications in noisy environments. These products feature robust communications peripherals including the SERCOM module and LIN, along with advanced motor control peripherals.
    This family supports the IEC 61508 (SIL 2/3) Functional Safety standard. (~20 parts)

If you have insight into the meanders of the Microchip product taxonomy, please contact us at support@keremi.com.

Nordic
No change.
Nuvoton
No change.
NXP
NXP introduced the i.MXRT1024 between the i.MXRT1021 and the i.MX1051. It is a low cost flashless Cortex-M7 based MCU running at 500MHz and priced around $3@10k.
The second family – i.MXRT117x – complements at the top of the range the i.MXRT group. It features the same Cortex-M7 with an optional Cortex-M4 running at respectively up to 1 GHz and 400 MHz. The top of the line features 2MB of RAM, 3 Ethernet ports, 2 USB and 3 CAN FD with a MIPI LCD interface and a 2D GPU. The beast cost less than $5.6@10k.
Renesas
Renesas launched in the RA family (Cortex-M) the RA4M3 group. Based on the Cortex-M33 core, it uses a 40nm process for IoT applications requiring vast communication options, future proof security, large embedded RAM, and low active power consumption down to 119µA/MHz running the CoreMark® algorithm from Flash. The 100MHz Arm Cortex-M33 features:

  • 512kB to 1MB Flash memory and 64kB SRAM with parity and 64kB SRAM with ECC
  • 8kB Data Flash to store data as in EEPROM
  • 64-pin to 144-pin packages
  • Capacitive touch sensing unit (CTSU)
  • USB 2.0 Full Speed
  • CAN 2.0B
  • Quad SPI
  • SCI (UART, Simple SPI, Simple I2C)
  • SPI/I2C multi-master interface
  • SDHI and MMC

Overall, 27 parts were added (some of them were in the RA2L1 announced last month).
On the RL78 front, Renesas beefed up the Rl78/G13, G12, G1P families with new variants of existing products, in total 146 products.
Similarly for RX, the RX110, RX130, RX210, RX230, RX23E, RX23W, RX62T, RX63 got over 300 new part numbers.

SiliconLabs
No changes.

Spansion/Cypress soon Infineon
Cypress added 25 variants to the existing CY8C40/41 and CY8C42.
ST Microelectronics
ST unveiled a handful of variants across the board.
Texas Instruments
TI disclosed a few new products in the SimpleLink family, in particular the CC1312R, a Cortex-M4 Sub-GHz wireless MCU with 352kB Flash .
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