What’s up with Bluetooth?
09
Mar
2020
Bluetooth continue to lead the headlines in the MCU world this spring with Nordic Semiconductor launching the nRF5340 multi-protocol SoC, a dual core Cortex-M33 (network / application), with a low 2.6mA (@1Mbps RX) power consumption, an aggressive number given the dual core Cortex-M33. TI also announced the CC2642R-Q1, an AEC-Q100 (automotive) compliant BT 5.1 SoC.
Get ready for your favorite connectivity or IoT application!
Meanwhile, ST is trying new combinations of frequency and memory with the STM32H7A/B pairing a relatively low (280MHz) pace and high memory (up to 1.4MB of RAM and 2MB of Flash).
No change.
A handful of products got rev2 silicon in the XMC13, XMC42 and XMC44 series.
Microchip released close to 80 variants of the dsPIC33CK and CH families with +125C max temp and new packages. Also, the ATMEGA480x/PIC16/18 got a few additional automotive grade variants (VAO extension).
Nordic released the nRF5340 family (only one product for now, the nRF5340-QKAA), a dual-Cortex-M33 (application and network) Bluetooth 5.2 SoC supporting Bluetooth LE, Bluetooth mesh, NFC, Thread and Zigbee.
The application core has 1024/512kB Flash/RAM, a FPU, 8 kB cache and DSP instructions while the network one is optimized for low power and efficiency (101 CoreMark/mA) with 256/64kB Flash/RAM.
The Cortex-M33 provides trusted execution, root-of-trust and secure key storage security features.
The nRF5340 supports Bluetooth Low Energy with all AoA and AoD roles in Bluetooth Direction Finding, in addition Bluetooth Long Range and 2 Mbps. Mesh protocols like Bluetooth mesh, Thread and Zigbee can be run concurrently with Bluetooth LE. NFC, ANT, 802.15.4 and 2.4 GHz proprietary protocols are also supported.
Nuvoton introduced 17 new variants of existing products in the NUC029, NUC220, M48 families.
NXP added the K32L2Ax to complement the K32L2Bx with hardware crypto accelerators, 4 products were added.
No significant changes.
No change.
No significant change.
ST released the single-core 280 MHz Cortex-M7 STM32H7A/B lines. These are focused on lower frequency than other products in the STM32H7 series while keeping large amounts of memory and lowering the idle power consumption tenfold to 32uA with 1.4MB of active RAM. The STM32H7B adds crypto functions.
TI added the MSP430G2x55 series, a low-power mixed signal MCU with up to 32 I/O touch-sense-enabled pins, a versatile analog comparator, and USB.
On the Bluetooth front, TI announced the SimpleLink CC2642R-Q1 device, an AEC-Q100 compliant BTLE MCU for automotive applications. Applications include passive entry passive start (PEPS) and remote keyless entry (RKE), battery management systems (BMS), car sharing, piloted parking, cable replacement, and smartphone connectivity.
Key features include:
- Bluetooth 5.1: LE Coded PHYs (Long Range), LE 2-Mbit PHY (High Speed), Advertising Extensions, Multiple Advertisement Sets, CSA#2
-
Fully-qualified Bluetooth 5.1 software protocol stack
-
AEC-Q100 qualified at –40 °C to +105 °C, in a 7x7mm VQFN package with wettable flanks
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Sensitivity -105 dBm for 125-kbps LE Coded PHY
More Bluetooth for the new year
06
Jan
2020
To close the year, Renesas uncovered the RX23W group, featuring BT 5.0 with integrated RF and NXP released a powerful 4xCortex-A53+Cortex-M7 roaster of devices while everybody else enjoyed the holiday season. Renesas’ BT is one more set of devices to attack the proverbial IOT market, following Dialog and Nordic’s latest announcements.
Welcome to 2020.
No change.
Infineon is set to announce the closing of the acquisition of Cypress in the next months. The ARM portfolio of Infineon is pretty thin and has little overlap with Cypress’s.
Microchip released 40 D variants of the SAMD21 family. According to the datasheet, this corresponds to the silicon revision G with RWW support in 128kB memory options. There were also a smilar number of DSPIC33CH parts mostly with high temperature range (-40+150C) and new packages (UQFN). Finally, the PIC12/16/24 got automotive grade variants (VAO extension).
No change.
Nuvoton unveiled the NUC29SEE, a base Cortex-M0 core, 2.5V ~ 5.5V and – 40 ℃ ~ +105 ℃ , with support for USB 2.0 FS.
NXP added the i.MX 8M Nano with up to 4 Cortex A53 coupled with a single Cortex-M7. 12 products were launched.
Renesas has just launched the RX23W group to support the Bluetooth 5.0 low energy, long range and mesh networking markets. We found 8 products, and the group uses a RXv2 core running at 54MHz with 1.8V to 3.6V operation and -40 to 85C temperature range.
Flash/RAM sizes go up to 512/64kB with 2 packages so far, QFN56 and BGA85. On the Bluetooth side, it supports one channel BT5.0 (LE 1M PHY, LE 2M PHY, LE Coded PHY 125kbps and 500kbps, LE Advertising Extensions) with integrated RF. There is a dedicated AES-CCM (128-bit) encryption circuit.
Finally, the RX23W embeds a rich portfolio of peripherals:
- 1x USB 2.0 Host/Function/OTG, Full speed (12Mbps), low speed (1.5Mbps), battery charger support
- 1 ch CAN, ISO11898-1 compliant, Max. 1Mbps
- 1 ch SD Host with SD memory/SDIO 1 or 4-bit SD bus support
- Capacitive Touch Sensing with up to 12 keys supported in a 1-terminal 1-key configuration or up to 36 keys in a 12-terminal matrix configuration
- 14 ch 12-bit A/D and 2 ch 12-bit D/A converters
- Trusted Secure IP Lite (AES/TRNG)
In the EFM32 family, 63 EFM32LG parts moved to a new revision or a new nomenclature. The documentation (datasheet) is inconsistent with the part names, e.g. EFM32LG230F128G-QFN64 part number vs. a pattern of EFM32LG230F128G-F-QFN64
Finally, 3 new parts were added to the EFM32GG12 family, they are 125C, BGA112 variants of existing parts.
On the wireless side, the following family were removed from the user’s path (i.e. a user can only access them if they perform a search), maybe a fluke on the website:
- EFR32BG14
- EFR32MG1B
- EFR32MG1P
- EFR32MG1V
EFR32MG14 is being phased out to EFR32MG13 for battery powered Zigbee or Thread apps, EFR32MG12 for Zigbee, Thread and multiprotocol applications and EFR32MG21 for mains powered mesh applications including lighting, gateways and voice assistants.
No significant change.
ST disclosed a few variants of existing parts.
No significant change.
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