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.
Nuvoton new ReRAM
30
Oct
2023
Nuvoton is using an innovative non-volatile memory, the ReRAM to replace flash in its newest Cortex-M-based line of products. This was developed when Nuvoton was still Panasonic Semiconduct Solutions. Fujitsu developed a 12 Mbits product last year, based on Nuvoton’s technology. ReRAM seems to be catching on with multiple startups focused on the technology, including Weebit and Crossbar. According to Nuvoton, ReRAM provides key advantages compared to traditional Flash, including fast read/write speeds, low power consumption, and superior durability. Let’s hope for success of ReRAM in the low power MCU market.
Infineon added 15 new part numbers as it created the PSoC™ 4000T series, expanding the PSoC™ 4 Cortex-M0+ based microcontrollers family. It features Infineon’s 5th Generation high-performance CAPSENSE™ capacitive sensing technology with 10x higher SNR and 10x lower consumption than previous generations of CAPSENSE™.
PSoC™ 4000T series targets low-power applications including wearable, hearable, and smart connected IoT devices. Here is the overview of the PSoC 4000T:
- 48-MHz Arm® Cortex®-M0+ CPU with single-cycle multiply
- Up to 64/8 kB of flash/RAM
- CAPSENSE™ technology; supports both, self and mutual capacitive sensing techniques with up to 16 self-capacitive inputs or 64 mutual-capacitive inputs
15 part numbers were released. There were also 7 new variants in the CY8C414x family (Auto PSoC 4S-Series).
Microchip added 78 new part numbers mostly in the ATTiny, AVR16, DSPIC33C (with the VAO suffix for Automotive support), and PIC18F.
No change.
Nuvoton released the M2L31 Series, a 72 MHz Cortex-M23 based group targeting Motor Control, PC Peripherals, Industrial Automatic, Battery Management System applications. It sports 64 to 512 Kbytes ReRAM, 40 to 168 Kbytes SRAM, 1.71V to 3.6V operating voltage, -40°C to 105°C wide operating temperature, a variety of packages choices, and high immunity characteristics by 4 kV ESD HBM and 4.4 kV EFT.
ReRAM (Resistive Random-Access Memory) is a type of non-volatile memory that achieves digital data storage by altering the resistance state of its components through the application of an external voltage. It boasts three major characteristics: fast read/write speeds, low power consumption, and superior durability, making it hailed as the next-generation embedded universal memory. Unlike embedded flash memory, ReRAM doesn’t require an page erase operation before writing, resulting in faster write speeds and a more straightforward and speedy operation similar to EEPROM. Furthermore, ReRAM consumes less energy for storing each bit compared to what is needed in flash memory. Additionally, because each storage unit can be individually set or reset, it offers greater endurance than flash memory.
The M2L31 series provides up to three Programmable Gain Amplifiers (PGA) to amplify the small voltage, three comparators in conjunction with PWM to ensure cycle-by-cycle over current limiting for increased application safety and robustness, one 24-ch high-speed 3.6 MSPS 12-bit SAR ADC, up to two 12-bit 1 MSPS DAC to provide precise voltage reference to other analog device, 12-ch 16-bit 72MHz PWM and up to 12-ch 16-bit 144MHz EPWM.
The M2L31 series includes one controller compliant with USB Type-C Rev. 2.1 and USB Power Delivery Rev. 3.0 specifications. The controller featuring USB Type-C pull-high and pull-low resistors, Dead battery and fast role swap supported, and flexible Power Delivery along with data transmission over a single cable.
The M2L31 series provides a variety of peripherals such as RTC with independent VBAT pin, up to 16 channels of PDMA, up to 16 independent capacitive touch key sensing, up to 2 sets of CAN FD controller, USB 2.0 FS OTG Host and device controllers, up to 8 sets of UART, up to 4 sets of I²C, up to 4 sets of SPI/I2S,1 set of QSPI, and 2 sets of Universal Serial Control Interfaces (USCI).
Supported packages include WLCSP 25 (2.5 mm x 2.5 mm), QFN32 (5 mm x 5 mm), LQFP48 (7 mm x 7 mm), QFN 48 (5 mm x 5 mm), WLCSP 49 (3.0 mm x 3.0 mm), LQFP64 (7 mm x 7 mm), and LQFP128 (14 mm x 14 mm).
No change.
Renesas was quite prolific this month, with 30 new RA part numbers, all variants of existing parts, 121 new products in the RL78 family mostly with new revisions of existing parts.
No change.
ST had only minor changes to its portfolio with 22 new variants across various families.
TI had a few new Cortex-M0+ from the MSPM0L/G Cortex-M0+ MCUs, but these were samples with an X prefix. 9 parts in total. The Delfino 28x got also 13 new parts, F28001xx.
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