The STM32MP1 storm
05
Mar
2019
The storm finally came from ST in the form of a single/dual 640MHz Cortex-A7 with a 209MHz Cortex-M4 co-processor. This competes heads on with the NXP i.MX7 and the RZ/G1E or RZ/G1H from Renesas. Reusing the ecosystem from the successful STM32 Cortex-M will help engineers take advantage of the low power Cortex-M4. Very exciting times.
A couple more VAO (automotive-grade) parts appeared in the ATTiny817 families as well as a few variants of existing parts, 16 in total.
On the Cortex-M based families, Microchip added 74 parts in the ATMSAMC20/1 with new package variants: VQFN64 and TQFP64.
No change.
No change.
This month, the VAO (automotive-grade) wand fell onto 13 parts, the PIC16F1xxx. No other major changes.
No change.
Nuvoton launched the M031/M032 series, based on an Cortex-M0 core with 1.8V ~ 3.6V operating voltage, 5V I/O tolerant, running up to 48/72 MHz within -40~105°C. The series provides a 12-bit ADC, comparators and up-to 24-ch 96/144 MHz PWM control, an Universal Serial Control Interface that works as UART/SPI/I²C. Flash size ranges from 16 KB to 512 KB, SRAM size from 2 KB to 96 KB. Supported packages are TSSOP20, TSSOP28, QFN33, LQFP48, LQFP64 and LQFP128. The M032 adds a crystal-less USB 2.0 FS device feature. 15 parts were released.
NXP has released a new silicon revision 1.1 of its i.MX8Mxxx series with AB suffixes, 10 parts overall.
We are seeing 18 new RX24T with extended temp (+105C).
No change this month.
Cypress has only minor changes this month.
The STM32MP1 series embeds one or 2 650MHz Cortex-A7 and a 209 MHz Cortex-M4 core running at 209MHz. The STM32MP1 supports DDR3, DDR3L, LPDDR2, LPDDR3 32/16-bit at 533MHz as well as eMMC, SD card, SLC NAND, SPI NAND and Quad-SPI NOR Flashes.
The GPU is based on OpenGL® ES 2.0 interface and native support for Linux and various application frameworks, including Android Qt. The STM32MP1 supports 24-bit parallel RGB displays up to WXGA at 60fps and MIPI® DSI with 2 data lanes running at 1Gbps.
The STM32MP1 Series embeds hardware security features including TrustZone, cryptography, hash, Secure Boot, anti-tamper pins, and a real-time clock.
The STM32MP1 also leverages advanced IPs from STM32 MCUs. STM32MP1 has 37x communication interfaces, such as 3x USB2.0 including 2x High-Speed, 1x Gigabit Ethernet GMAC, 2x CAN FD and standard I²C, UARTs and SPIs. It also comes with a range of analog peripherals including 2x 16b ADCs, 2x 12b DACs and On-chip LDOs. The STM32MP1 supports 29x timers and 3x watchdogs. Depending on packages, it can also support up to 176 GPIOs.
ST completes the chipset with the STPMIC1, a dedicated Power-Management IC (PMIC) that integrates four DC/DC buck converters, six LDOs, a DC/DC boost converter, and USB VBUS and general-purpose power switches, creating a space and BOM savings to supply all required power rails for the STM32MP1 and for other components on the board. Using power-consumption optimization, the STPMIC1 is an ideal companion chip for the STM32MP1 Series in battery-powered applications.
The OpenSTLinux Distribution supports development on the STM32MP1’s Cortex-A7 cores and contains important elements that include Linux BSP, kernel, drivers, boot chain, and secure OS (OP-TEE: Trusted Execution Environment).
3 developer software packages are available:
Starter Package (STM32MP1Starter) to quickly and easily start with any STM32MP1 microprocessor device
Developer Package (STM32MP1Dev) to add your own developments on top of the STM32MP1 Embedded Software distribution
Distribution Package (STM32MP1Distrib) to create your own Linux® distribution, your own Starter, and your own Developer packages
STM32CubeMX facilitates software and hardware configuration of both the Cortex-A7 and Cortex-M4 cores. It handles C-code generation for the M4 core, DDR SDRAM interface configuration, and tuning tool. It can also generate Linux Device trees.
STM32MP1 part numbers are in production now, starting at $4.84/10k.
No change this month.
Calm before the storm?
04
Feb
2019
Calm before the Feb 20th storm? NXP has disclosed more i.MX8 multi-core apps processors although they are in development while we have concurring hints that ST will announce a family of devices capable of running a full Linux kernel. This would bring sparks to the embedded apps processor market where NXP, Mediatek, Renesas, Texas Instruments and Intel have dominated.
A couple of VAO (automotive-grade) parts appeared in the SAMV7 and SAMC21 families.
Dialog had a revamp of their site and in the process, we saw a few additional parts in the DA14583/5, DA14680/2 families.
No change.
About 30 parts were added this month, partly in the DSPIC33 and PIC16F families with the auto-grade VAO suffix as well as in the PIC32MM. The DSPIC33CH uses a dual-core architecture and targets motor control and industrial applications. The DSPIC33CK is its single-core cousin.
No change.
As discussed last week, Nuvoton is one of the few MCU suppliers that has Cortex-M23-based products, more can be found here.
NXP offered an interesting mix of new products this month.
The i.MX8 M for Mini is a multi-core apps processors built on 14LPC FinFET process. At the heart is a core complex of up to four Cortex-A53 cores running up to 2GHz plus Cortex-M4 based real-time processing domain at 400+MHz. The i.MX 8M Mini adds hardware 1080p video acceleration to enable two-way video applications, 2D and 3D graphics, and advanced audio. 12 part numbers were released on the web site, but the status is still “in development”.
A couple of i.MXRT1015 (low end Cortex-M7) were also released. Finally, a number of LPC541xx with WLCSP49 packages were removed.
No change this month.
SiliconLabs released the Giant Gecko GG12, basically a GG11 without the Ethernet interface and a slightly better power consumption, 69 parts in total. It also beefed up its Happy Gecko (Cortex-M0+) portfolio, more next month.
Cypress has only minor changes this month.
ST had only minor changes this month, but this might be hiding a larger upcoming change. We have heard rumors from independent sources of an imminent launch of an STM32 platform that would support Linux. ST has this nice post on LinkedIn.
If this is a full Linux kernel, it would unlikely be based on Cortex-M7/M4 which don’t have a memory management unit, comments on LinkedIn are hinting at a Cortex-A7 with a Cortex-M processor, we will know by Feb 20th.
TI has released close to 20 MSP430FR50/60 part numbers to serve the ultrasonic sensing market.
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