Nowadays, the role played by MCU in electronic products is no longer simply controlled, especially in the era of the Internet of Things, where the workload undertaken by MCU is increasing. How to make the skilled work more efficiently is also a task that MCU designers are racking their brains to do. Since the first STM32 chip was launched by STM32 Semiconductor in June 2007, STM32 has become the No1 in the general microcontroller market (excluding car standard MCU and smart card security MCU) by 2021.
Arnaud Julienne, Vice President of Internet of Things/Artificial Intelligence Technology Innovation Center and Digital Marketing, Asia Pacific Microcontroller and Digital IC Product Department of Italian Semiconductor, introduced that STM32 product development focuses on the following three aspects: edge side efficient computing needs, MCU needs to meet AI applications; The MCU should ensure the functional and data security of the edge side; High bandwidth cloud up and down connections, MCU to ensure smooth operation. The digital era has promoted the rapid growth of the STM32 market, and STM32 is also continuously launching new products to accelerate the pace of digitization.
STM32C0: Your next 8-bit MCU will be a 32-bit STM32C0
Cao Jindong, Director of the Microcontroller and Digital IC Product Department of Yifa Semiconductor in China, introduced that in MCU applications, the market share of the eight MCUs is currently 25%, with small household appliances and toy applications accounting for a relatively high proportion. With the upgrade of the product, sensing, display, human-computer interaction and other functions have gradually been added, so transitioning to a 32-bit MCU is a wise choice. However, these applications are extremely price sensitive. Considering customer needs and concerns, ST has launched the STM32C0, which only costs 8 bits for a 32-bit microcontroller.
STM32C0 is based on the Arm Cortex-M0+kernel, with a main frequency of 48 MHz and an instruction throughput of 44 DMIPS. This metric is 10 times higher than STM8, and the runtime power consumption is 80 μ A/MHz, deep sleep mode power consumption is only 20 nA. Compared to standard MCU with the same performance, STM32C0 has higher integration and fewer peripheral components. It adopts a packaging with only one pair of external power pins, freeing up more I/O pins for applications, and has a built-in 1% accuracy high-speed clock, saving external clock components. The packaging of STM32C0 and STM32G0 is completely identical, and the pin positions are also identical. Engineers can easily achieve migration between two MCUs. The STM32C0 series allows designers to use the powerful development ecosystem of STM32, and is also equipped with corresponding development boards and exploration kits.
Cao Jindong introduced that from suppliers to new product releases and supply chain security, 8-bit MCU is not as secure as 32-bit MCU, and there are not enough suppliers to release new products. So, upgrading the market from 8-bit to 32-bit is a trend.
STM32H5: Make Your Smart Applications Safer
He Difan, Senior Manager of the General Microcontroller Business Unit Technology Market in the Microcontroller and Digital IC Product Department of Italian Semiconductor China, introduced that STM32H5 not only has high performance, but also introduces STM32Trust TEE Security Manager security technology.
The STM32H5 is equipped with the Arm Cortex-M33 core. The operating frequency is 250 MHz, and the processing speed is 375 DMIPS. The CoreMark industry benchmark test score is 1023 points. The super performance enables Edge device to have more intelligence. STM32H5 is the first MCU in the market where customers can access system on a chip security services through industry standard APIs.
The security manager tool introduced in STM32H5 can help customers achieve security scalability. He Difan explained that the IoT KeySTREAM in this security management module is pre integrated and cannot be modified. Customers can directly download it into their own project application to use it. In addition, customers can also add third-party security environments, You can generate code that you want to protect or have certain security requirements into a security module, and add another layer of security protection to your product. After all, no matter how much security is emphasized on connected devices, it is not excessive.
In order to help engineers tap into the potential of STM32H5, ST also provides related development kits NUCLEO-H503RB, NUCLEO-H563ZI, and STM32H573I-DK with encryption modules.
STM32WBA: Make wireless connectivity ubiquitous
The wireless product market manager of the General Microcontroller Business Unit of the Microcontroller and Digital IC Product Department of Italian Semiconductor China introduced that STM32WBA is the third series of STM32 wireless MCU. The STM32WBA is based on the Arm Cortex-M33 core, runs at a frequency of 100 MHz, integrates up to 1 MB of flash memory and 128 KB of SRAM, and has a CoreMark test score of 407.
In the era of the Internet of Things, more devices will need to join the network wirelessly. STM32WBA supports the Bluetooth Low Energy 5.3 protocol that balances distance and power consumption, and the integrated 2.4 GHz RF transceiver on the chip has an output power of+10 dBm. As explained by the citation, an output power of+10 dBm means that if STM32WBA is used as a device connection, even if the wireless signal is unstable, The strong wireless link of STM32WBA can also be used to achieve stable connection with the device, ensuring signal reliability, which is crucial for wireless devices.
STM32WBA and STM32U5 share many power-saving technologies and adopt a fast wake-up power-saving mode. Compared with previous wireless products, STM32WBA has lower power consumption, faster wake-up, stronger signals, and better meets the requirements of IoT devices.
STM32MP13: Adding New Members to the STM32 Family MPU
The positioning of STM32 MPU is very clear, mainly targeting applications with higher performance requirements than typical high-end embedded MCUs. Huo Shun, Market Manager of Microcontrollers and Digital IC Products in the General Microcontroller Business Unit of Italian Semiconductor China, introduced that STM32MP13 is the second series launched by the STM32 family after STM32MP15. It is based on the Arm Cortex-A7 core and runs at frequencies ranging from 650 MHz to 1 GHz. It is very suitable for use with Qt graphics frameworks to help customers develop complex responsive user interfaces.
Unlike the already released STM32MP15, which uses dual cores, STM32MP13 uses a single core and has a higher cost-effectiveness. STM32MP13 ensures the security of IoT devices through encryption algorithm accelerator, side channel protection, tamper resistance, secure storage, Arm TrustZone technology, and trusted firmware secure processing environment.
More importantly, STM32MP13 can utilize the powerful ecosystem of STM32, allowing engineers to easily port projects from STM32 MCU to MPU.
STM32H5 belongs to high-performance microcontrollers, while STM32MP13 is a product of the Cortex-A series. Both are high-performance products. So, how should engineers choose when using them? He Difan introduced that the performance of the two series of products differs from that of the kernel itself, as well as the ecosystem. Customers will use a Linux like operating system when using MPU, while using STM32H5 is a real-time operating system.
There are so many STM32 products to choose from, and all products promise a 10-year supply guarantee. Excited, engineers who have been plagued by shortages in the past two years may be more concerned about supply issues. Arnaud Julienne said that the company expects to spend $4 billion in 2023 to expand production capacity, and production capacity will double by 2025! STM32, which will not be out of stock, is truly fragrant when used~