ARM wrestling at the top of MCUs
16
Feb
2015
After the top of the line Cortex-M7 announcements of recent months, Renesas is retaliating with the release of its full portfolio of 240MHz-1,056-Coremarks RXv2 parts. With all the bells and whistles – Ethernet, USB HS, Encryption, 4MB Flash, CAN, it is well equipped to fight Atmel, Freescale and ST’s Cortex-M7 devices. Or is it? ARM claims a whooping 5 Coremark/MHz and ST already offers a 200MHz part while Atmel already has 67 300MHz Cortex-M7 ATSAM7.
Cortex-M7 parts seems to lag behind Renesas in Flash integration though with “only” 2MB. Will we see high frequency RXv2 soon at Renesas? The MCUs are moving up market and are starting to encroach into the application processor segment, it will be an interesting year.
After much emotions last month (remember the freshly baked Cortex-M7 SAME7x,S7x and V7x), Atmel just released more parts in the low end SAMD1x family. In all, 11 parts with that same Cortex-M0+ at 48MHz were released. The D10.13 embeds 8kB of Flash and 4kB RAM while the SAMD10.14 bumps up the Flash size to 16kB. The C version has fewer ADC and pins than its D counterpart.
On the price front, the portfolio had only a few minor changes in the ATSAM4 family.
Spring is coming at Freescale and we can already feel some cleanup… The PK (Prototype) devices are almost gone (32 products removed), with the exception of the PK10. On the other end, 45 products appeared, alas, these were mostly R suffixes, i.e. reel packing option. The only exception was the MK22DN512VDC5/(R), a variant of the 50MHz Cortex-M4. FSL web site is a bit short on details, except for the 121 pin count, and the product brief doesn’t mention the DC package…
Nothing happened for FSL prices this month.
Hmm, four months since any product was announced at NXP. Is something new cooking? An M7 beast, or a multi-processor engine that only NXP can create?
Pricewise, there was no change.
Renesas released all the Rx71M described in the roadmap at once, what a feast! See below (source Renesas) for a complete view of the family.
This is heavyduty equipment with at least 2MB of Flash, 240MHz – 1,056 CoreMark.
On the RL78 front, the new RL78/I1D family targeted at the detectors and sensors market was launched with 13 new products. Here is the lineup (source: Renesas).
Renesas experienced very limited price changes.
We are getting beyond desperate about SiLabs Cortex portfolio…
No price change either.
37 products became public this month across the board. Most were variations of existing products. The following families were updated:
- STM32F030 (2)
- STM32F070/71 (6)
- STM32F215 (1)
- STM32F302/3 (20)
- STM32F398 (1)
- STM32F4 (4)
- STM32L1 (3)
ST price changes focused on the STM32F091 and STM32F217 (-6 to -14%) while a few F031/51 and F405/7 parts enjoyed a refreshing +10%.
TI was quiet this month with no move on Tiva beyond the TM4C123GH6ZXR getting in production and only one MSP430 part – XMS430FR6972IPMR – added.
It was very quiet on the price front too.
Extended Christmas from Atmel
15
Jan
2015
During the heat of CES, Atmel offered us a nice post Christmas gift this month with the broadest Cortex-M7 portfolio of the market!
This definitely gives ST some heat, but let’s see how ST will roll out their M7 portfolio too. And, let’s not forget about Freescale’s M7 license that will definitely come under the light very soon.
2015 promises to be full of new MCU families based on our industry contacts.
We cannot wait to see them!
Here they are, the freshly baked Cortex-M7 are now officially named SAM E7x, S7x and V7x. With 67 part numbers this is easily the largest Cortex-M7 product portfolio, ST being a second distant – for now.
At 300MHz and up to 384kB of RAM the new devices target the high-end MCU range and start encroaching on the application processor market – connectivity and general purpose industrial applications – while the auto-grade SAM V70 and SAM V71 focus on in-vehicle infotainment, audio amplifiers, telematics and head unit control. All devices come with HS USB OTG and HS USB PHY and 512kB, 1MB or 2MB of Flash.
The S70 embeds 16kB of I/D cache, up to 8 UARTs, I2S, SD/MMC interface, a CMOS camera interface, system control and analog interfaces.
In addition to the S70 features, the E70 include a 10/100 Eth MAC and 2x Bosch CAN-FD.
The automotive-qualified V70/V71 offers Eth AVB support, HS USB with PHY and Media LB, CAN 2.0 and CAN flexible data rate controller.
Software development tools are available on Atmel Studio, the ARM MDK and IAR EWARM. OS support include Keil® RTX, Segger embOS, FreeRTOS and Express Logic Thread-X. ATSAMV71-XULT Xplained evaluation kit supports the four series. Additionally, the automotive series will come with complete AUTOSAR support and Ethernet-AVB stack.
SAM E70, SAM S70, SAM V70 and SAM V71 are sampling now.
Pricing for the SAMS70 starts at $4.80@10k. Xplained board is USD $125.
With that, Atmel added new SAMG54/G55 sub families to target the IoT market for battery-operated devices and wearables. The devices include a Cortex-M4, integrated sensor fusion algorithms, down to 2.84 x 2.84mm package, high-performance frequency of up to 120MHz, ultra-low power down to 102µA/MHz in active mode, and down to 5µs wake-up.
On the price front, the portfolio experienced no change.
It was quiet at freescale this month with no product activity.
Nothing happened for FSL prices this month.
Beyond the announcement of the LPC54100 family 2 months ago, it’s been quiet on the product front at NXP.
Here is a run down of the main LPC54100 features:
- Dual-core M4+M0+ (54101) or Single core M4 (54102) 100 MHz
- 512/256 kB Flash
- 3 uA power down with RAM retention
- Cortex-M0+ (55 uA/MHz)
- Cortex-M4F (100 uA/MHz)
- ADC 12 chan, 12 bits
- -40 to +105C
- 1.62 to 3.6 V
- WLCSP49 (3.28 x 3.28 mm), LQFP64 (10 x 10 mm)
Pricewise, there was no change.
Renesas released 49 parts in the top of the line RX64 family (63 parts originally).
On the RL78 front, 6 products were released in the RL78/G10 family.
Renesas experienced very limited price changes.
We are getting desperate about SiLabs Cortex portfolio…
No price change either.
11 products became public this month across the board. They were mostly higher temperature or R (Reel) versions of existing products, except for the STM32F051C4U6.
ST prices were stable.
TI was quiet this month with no move on Tiva and a few XMS430FR413 that were removed.
There were some significant price changes (~-30%) for the MSP430FR572x/3x (FRAM), 77 parts were affected.
| Sign up for our newsletter |