$13 Qualcomm QCC74xM EVK offers Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.4, and 802.15.4 connectivity (Bouffalo Lab BL618 inside)

Back in November 2024, we wrote about Qualcomm’s QCC730M and QCC74xM modules for low-power IoT devices, but at the time, there was no evaluation board EVK for those SoCs. Fast forward to today, and the official development boards for the QCC74x series have finally been released, complete with a surprisingly affordable price tag.

The Qualcomm QCC74xM EVK is a tri-radio evaluation board with Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.4, and IEEE 802.15.4 (Thread/Zigbee) with a price tag of just over $13. But what is interesting is that, while it carries the Qualcomm brand, documentation from the Zephyr Project clearly shows that the QCC74x series is actually based on and mostly equivalent to the Bouffalo Lab BL61x series, specifically the BL618.

Qualcomm QCC74xM EVK specifications:

• Wireless Module – Qualcomm QCC74xM LGA Module (QCC743M, QCC744M, or QCC748M depending on the board variant)
  • CPU – 32-bit RISC-V processor (RV32IMAFCP) @ up to 325 MHz with FPU and DSP
  • Memory and Storage
    • 484 KB SRAM (with 48 KB Cache) and 128 KB ROM on-chip
    • 8 MB stacked pSRAM (QCC748M only)
    • 16 MB stacked NOR flash
  • VPU – Motion JPEG (MJPEG) video encoding up to 720p (QCC748M only)
• Display – DBI via GPIO (QCC748M only)
• Camera – DVP via GPIO (QCC748M only)
• Audio
  • I2S (Master/Slave) interface
  • 1x DAC for speaker output and 1x ADC for MIC input via GPIO  (QCC748M only)
• Networking and wireless
  • 10/100Mbps Ethernet via GPIO (QCC744M & QCC748M only)
  • 2.4GHz 802.11 b/g/n/ax Wi-Fi 6 1×1 SISO
  • Bluetooth Low Energy 5.4 with coded PHY
  • 802.15.4 Thread and Zigbee
  • Support for Matter over Wi-Fi and Thread
  • PCB Antenna or an RF connector options
• USB
  • USB Type-C port (J1) for UART/serial console and programming
  • USB Type-C port (J9) for Direct USB/Power (QCC748M only)
• Other I/O
  • Dual-row pin headers for GPIOs (Up to 32x GPIOs on QCC748M; up to 19x on QCC743M)
  • 2x UART, 2x I2C, SPI (Master/Slave), XIP QSPI
  • 1x ISO 11898 CAN Bus (Automotive/Industrial)
  • General Purpose 12/14/16-bit ADC and 12-bit DAC
  • 1x PWM (4 channels), IR Controller (Receiver), Timers (RTC, 2x 32-bit, 1x 16-bit), and JTAG (via GPIO)
• Security
  • Integrated crypto acceleration with public key acceleration, TRNG, and QSPI (XIP) on-the-fly AES decryption
  • PSA Certified Level One featuring secure boot and secure debug
• Misc
  • BOOT button (S1)
  • RESET button (S2)
  • Power LED and VDD33 LED
  • 2x 2-pin header jumpers (J3, J4)
•  Power
  • EVK Input Power  – USB or 5V
  • Module Input Voltage – 2.97-3.63V
  • I/O Voltage – 1.8V/3.3V
  • 1.8V power measurement pad (J5)
  • 3.3V power measurement pad (J6)
• Dimension -TBD
• Operating Temperature – -40 to +85°C

After going through the specifications, it’s clear that it’s designed to directly compete with Espressif modules like the ESP32-S3 or ESP32-C6, featuring a 325 MHz RISC-V core with an FPU and DSP, as well as short-range wireless standards. The specific EVK available right now (the QCC748M) represents the higher end of the stack, with up to 8MB of integrated PSRAM and 16MB of Flash.

Also, from the Block diagram, it’s clear that the only clear difference between the three boards is in the GPIOs and on the USB port.

On the software side, the QCC74x series is designed to operate in a hostless mode, running both the protocol stack and IoT applications without an external MCU. The official software SDK (hosted on CodeLinaro) is built on FreeRTOS and is open-sourced on CodeLinaro, alongside a Microsoft Visual Studio Code (VS Code) extension for development. Due to its Bouffalo Lab roots, the hardware is also already supported by the Zephyr RTOS ecosystem. More information is available on Qualcomm’s quick start guide.

The Qualcomm QCC74xM EVKs are available on DigiKey for $13.12. This includes the QCC748M, QCC744M, and QCC743M development boards. The QCC748M EVK comes in two variants – the EVK-QCC748M-2-01-0-AA with a built-in PCB trace antenna, and the EVK-QCC748M-2-01-0-AB with an RF connector for an external antenna. The QCC744M and QCC743M EVKs are also available in the same two antenna configurations (PCB trace and RF connector variants). The modules themselves for under $3 to $4.75.

Via Hackaday

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