For the joy of MCU…
18
May
2015
We are not the only ones to rejoice in the launch of new families. The cutest of the bunch is SiliconLabs’ Happy Gecko, a Cortex-M0+ 24MHz targeting the USB-powered devices with a surprise, see below.
Renesas also wants a piece of the fun with the RX23T, a 40MHz RXv2 number cruncher MCU family with an FPU to tackle inverter control systems for DC motor control and home appliances.
After unveiling 20 new SAM L devices last month, the activity has tapered down to 0 on the product front. No change this month, folks.
On the price front, no significant changes happened.
FSL released 8 new part numbers to create the MKL13 and MKL33 families.
2 products experienced close to 10% price increase: MK22FN512VMP12 and the MKM34Z128ACLL5. Prices at distribution were generally down at MK22, MKE02, MKL17/27.
NXP was very quiet this month on the product front following the acquisition of Freescale.
Pricewise, there was no change.
Renesas announced the new RX23T family focused on inverter control systems. The RXv2 parts include a single-precision FPU, supports 5V peripherals, and sports a 4 CoreMark/MHz score. The family range from 64 to 128 kB of Flash, 48LFQFP to 64LFQFP and max temperature from 85 to 105C. Samples are available now. The R5F523T3ADFL with 64kB of Flash, 48LFQFP is priced at US$1.25/10k. 12 devices were made public.
There was no change in the RL78 family.
RX1114/5 were hit by a 7-9% decrease while some RX1136 were down in excess of 20%.es
At last, Silicon Labs announced a new Gecko family, the cutest one of the bunch: the Happy Gecko. 19 products made it out. The focus is on low power USB connected devices. The 24MHz Cortex-M0+ embeds up to 64/8 kB of Flash/RAM in 4 different packages from QFP-48 to QFN-32/24 and CSP-36 (3mmx3mm). The emphasis is on low power with 53uA/MHz in sleep mode and up to 131uA/MHz in run from Flash.
Interestingly, 8 of the devices do not have a USB port, a tad surprising for a family whose main page title is “EFM32™ Happy Gecko USB-enabled 32-bit Microcontroller”. Have we missed anything? Or is the marketing just stretching the words?
Still, when you choose the right parts, you get a USB MAC and PHY, all cristal-less.
Prices range from $1.09 to $1.85 10ku at distributors.
No price changes.
As usual at ST, there is always a trickle of product changes. This month we see new packages options on the low end STM32F051/58, higher temp for the STM32F091RCH and the STM32F439IIH.
ST price changes were insignificant.
No further changes for TI on the MSP432 Cortex-M4 family announced alst month, but we saw 65 new parts in the MSP430FR (FRAM) family, primarily in the FR58/59, and 68/69 areas.
No price changes this month for TI MSP and Tiva.
A new Era for the Cortex-M at Texas Instruments?
15
Apr
2015
While TI has slowly shrunk the Tiva (former Luminary Micro) families, it has sampled a few weeks ago a Cortex-M4F part. Guess in which top level family the Cortex M4F has landed? Well, the Cortex-M3 was already present in the high performance C2000 family where it shared space with the C28 core; but now, the Cortex-M4F has it all for itself in the new MSP432 – Low power / Performance portfolio. The device claimed the lowest EEMBC ULP benchmark but has since been passed by the Atmel SAML21
The Cortex-M0+ based SAM L family that was announced before Electronica in November last year is now sampling, with general availability in September. The device now has the best score on the Ultra Low Power Benchmark of EEMBC although it has not been certified by EEMBC.
20 devices were unveiled, from the low end 32/4kB to 256/32 kB of Flash/RAM. The SAML21E, G and J families differentiate themselves primarily through the number of ADC and DACs, touch channels as well as the number of timers, TWI and UART. However, all sport a USB 2.0 Host/Device.
There were new parts with revision number B (e.g. ATSAM4S8CB-AU vs. ATSAM4S8CA-AU). This is what Atmel calls MRL – Marketing Revision Level.
On the price front, Atmel is now publishing prices on its web site. Don’t get excited too fast, the subdomain is actually owned by Digikey, and the prices seem to be the same as on the Digikey website. Prices were on the defensive side for the SAM4S with -5 to -15% declines.
FSL released 12 new part numbers, but much to the same tune as Atmel with its MRL, the new parts are merely silicon revisions. All changes happened in the MK22 family.
Nothing happened for FSL prices this month.
NXP was very quiet today on the product front following the acquisition of Freescale.
Pricewise, there was no change.
No product change was seen this month.
Renesas experienced very limited price changes.
No product change this month at SiLabs.
A few price decreases on the SiM while the EFM32 moved into positive territory.
Limited changes – 20 – at ST this month: 3/4 were for TR suffixes and higher temperature versions of existing parts (7 suffix), but ST released 4 new parts from their recently announced STM32F469/479.,
The new families focus on high-performance graphics for “smartphone-like”. It embeds ST’s Chrom-ART Accelerator, the MIPI-DSI display interface, a crypto processor.
The SF469/479 families are sampling now with volume in Q3, pricing starts at $8.29/10ku for the STM32F469AEH6 (512kB Flash/ BGA169).
ST price changes focused on the STM32F051 and 405VGT6TR (-5% and -17%) while a few F407 and F217 parts enjoyed a 10%+ increase.
Great news from TI, in the form of the MSP432. The family sports a Cortex-M4F at up to 48MHz with up to 256kB of Flash. There is only one experimental device the XMS432P401RIPZR. Although you can find some overlap with the Tiva family that also embeds a Cortex-M4, the Tiva runs at a minimum of 80MHz. We might be looking at similar designs with a low power, low frequency process for the MSP432.
For the 2nd month in a row, we see large price decreases for MSP430 on F525 parts, -10% to -27% while some 430G2 parts rose 10%+.
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