cortex-m33 News - CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

August 19, 2026August 19, 2026 by Debashis Das - 2 Comments

NXP MCX A5 Cortex-M33 MCU family supports 10BASE-T1S Single Pair Ethernet and Post-Quantum Cryptography

NXP has introduced the MCX A5 family of Cortex-M33 MCUs, which features a 10/100Mbps Ethernet MAC and an integrated 10BASE-T1S Single Pair Ethernet digital PHY. It targets industrial and networking applications such as controllers, PLCs, remote I/O, building and energy management systems, and other connected edge devices. The MCUs run at up to 240 MHz and feature up to 2 MB dual-bank Flash and 640 KB SRAM, along with multiple communication interfaces and analog peripherals. Security features include an EdgeLock accelerator, secure boot with PQC hybrid support, secure firmware updates, lifecycle management, secure debug, external Flash encryption, and anti-tamper monitoring. NXP MCX A5 Series (MCXA577) specifications: MCU Core Arm Cortex-M33 core clocked at up to 240 MHz Includes FPU, DSP, MPU, and TrustZone support Integrated SmartDMA co-processor for efficient data handling Delivers 988.8 CoreMark (4.12 CoreMark/MHz) Memory and Storage Up to 2 MB dual-bank Flash with ECC and read-while-write support […]

August 4, 2026 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

BG2B is the lowest-power Bluetooth LE SoC from Silicon Labs so far

Silicon Labs BG2B is an ultra-low-power Arm Cortex-M33 Bluetooth 6 LE SoC with support for Channel Sounding, “Secure Vault High” security, and integrated CAN-FD and peripherals such as LED drivers and ADCs for smaller, longer-lasting IoT devices. The company claims it’s the lowest-power Bluetooth LE device in its portfolio, with 1.1 µA EM2 sleep current with RAM retention, as well as 14%-15% lower MCU active current and lower Bluetooth receive current compared to Silicon Labs BG22/BG22L. The new microcontroller targets secure ranging, asset tracking, electronic shelf labels (ESLs), smart home, industrial monitoring, and vehicle diagnostics. Silicon Labs BG2B specifications: CPU core – 32-bit Arm Cortex-M33 @ 80 MHz with DSP instructions and floating-point unit (FPU) Memory – 64 kB or 128 kB SRAM Storage – 1016 kB flash Wireless – 2.4 GHz radio Modulation Formats OQPSK DSSS 2 (G)FSK with fully configurable shaping (G)MSK Protocols Bluetooth Low Energy 6 Channel […]

July 29, 2026July 29, 2026 by Debashis Das - No Comments

NXP RW610FML Wi-Fi 6 and BLE 5.4 module features RW610 Cortex-M33 wireless MCU

NXP RW610FML Scalable Wi Fi 6 and Bluetooth LE Combo Module

NXP has introduced the RW610FML, a compact, low-power, certified Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) 5.4 wireless module based on the company’s RW610 Cortex-M33 microcontroller, the little brother of the RW612 without an 802.15.4 radio. Designed for smart appliances, home automation, industrial gateways, and medical devices, the surface-mount module combines the 260 MHz Arm Cortex-M33 wireless SoC with 8MB of on-module NOR flash, a built-in antenna, an RF matching circuit, and a crystal oscillator. NXP RW610FML Specifications: Wireless MCU – NXP RW610 CPU Core – 260 MHz Arm Cortex-M33 core with Arm TrustZone-M Internal memory – 1.2 MB embedded on-chip SRAM Connectivity Wi-Fi – Dual-band 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz Wi-Fi 6 (IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n/ac/ax) SISO 20 MHz channel bandwidth Up to MCS9 (114 Mbps) peak data rate Bluetooth – Bluetooth Low Energy (LE) supporting 2 Mbit/s high-speed mode, long-range operation, and extended advertising Storage – 8 MB NOR flash Castellated […]

April 2, 2026April 3, 2026 by Debashis Das - No Comments

Nuvoton NuMicro M3331 Cortex-M33 MCU features built-in ARGB LED controller, optional USB 2.0 OTG interface

Nuvoton’s new NuMicro M3331 is a series of 32-bit Arm Cortex-M33 MCUs clocked at 180 MHz that integrate an ARGB LED controller, a DSP instruction set, a single-precision FPU, and TrustZone security for smart factories, renewable energy systems, and consumer devices. In the past, we have written about other Cortex-M33 MCUs like the STM32U3B5/C5, Texas Instruments MSPM33C321A, Nordic Semi’s nRF54LM20A, and various others, but the Nuvoton M3331 series specifically features a built-in Enhanced LED Light Strip Interface (ELLSI) and up to 10 standard LLSI channels. This allows the MCU to natively support gaming ARGB Gen1 and Gen2 LED control protocols, completely offloading the CPU to run fluid, dynamic LED effects. It comes in two variants, the M3333 series and the M3334 series, with the latter adding a high-speed USB 2.0 OTG controller with an integrated PHY. NuMicro M3331 specifications: MCU core – Arm Cortex-M33 32-bit CPU @ 180 MHz with single-precision […]

March 30, 2026March 30, 2026 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 11 Comments

PineTime Pro smartwatch to feature dual-core Cortex-M33 MCU, 2.13-inch AMOLED, GPS, and more

Pine64 has announced progress on the PineTime Pro smartwatch, powered by a dual-core Cortex-M33 microcontroller with Bluetooth 5.2 Classic and LE and 800KB SRAM. The watch also features a 2.13-inch AMOLED display, GPS support, a heart rate monitor, and a 6-axis motion sensor. It’s an upgrade to the PineTime project unveiled in September 2019, and one of the most popular Pine64 devices thanks to open-source software projects such as InfiniTime firmware. For reference, the PineTime ships with a Nordic nRF52 Arm Cortex-M4 Bluetooth MCU with 64 KB SRAM, a 1.3-inch IPS display, and basic HRM and accelerometer. The PineTime Pro is a massive upgrade that should support a wider range of firmware. PineTime Pro specifications: SoC – Unnamed wireless MCU CPU – Arm Cortex-M33 MCU @ up to 200 MHz Memory – 800 KB SRAM Wireless – Bluetooth 5.2 Classic (BR/EDR) & Low Energy (additional Cortex-M33) Memory – 8 MB […]

March 11, 2026 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Texas Instruments MSPM0G5187 and AM13Ex MCUs integrate TinyEngine NPU for Edge AI applications

Texas Instruments MSPM0G5187 and AM13Ex are two new microcontroller (MCU) families featuring the company’s TinyEngine neural processing unit (NPU) to enable low-latency, high-efficiency Edge AI/Machine Learning inference on the chips. TI claims that the TinyEngine NPU can run AI models with up to 90 times lower latency and more than 120 times lower energy utilization per inference than similar MCUs without an accelerator. The MSPM0G5187 is a general-purpose, low-power Arm Cortex-M0+ MCU, while the AM13Ex Arm Cortex-M33 microcontroller targets real-time motor control, starting with the AM13E23019 SKU. TI MSPM0G5187 general-purpose Cortex-M0+ MCU Key features and specifications: CPU – Arm Cortex-M0+ @ 80 MHz Memory – 32 KB RAM with ECC Storage – 128 KB flash with ECC, 8 KB data flash with ECC Accelerators TinyEngine NPU for AI/ML delivering up to 2.56GOPS (Giga Operations Per Second) at 80MHz MATHACL math accelerator Peripherals USB – 1x USB 2.0 (12 Mbps) Audio […]

September 26, 2025June 23, 2026 by Debashis Das - No Comments

Nordic nRF54LM20A Cortex-M33 wireless MCU doubles the SRAM to 512 KB, increases flash capacity

Nordic Semiconductor nRF54LM20A Low Power Matter Bluetooth MCU

Nordic Semi’s nRF54LM20A is a new Cortex-M33-based high-memory wireless MCU part of the nRF54L Series with double the SRAM and higher flash capacity compared ot the nRF54L15. It targets consumer, industrial, healthcare, and smart home applications, and is especially suitable for HID peripherals and gaming devices. The SoC integrates a 128 MHz Arm Cortex-M33 core with a RISC-V coprocessor, 2 MB NVM, and 512 KB RAM, alongside up to 66 GPIOs, high-speed USB, and Nordic’s fourth-generation ultra-low-power 2.4 GHz radio supporting Bluetooth LE, Thread, Zigbee, Channel Sounding, and Matter. It offers twice the processing power, three times the efficiency, and up to 50% lower power consumption than the nRF52 Series. nRF54LM20A key specifications and comparison with other nRF54 Series SoCs: The nRF54LM20A comes in two packages: a CSP98 (3.9 x 3.7 mm) package for compact designs with 66 GPIOs, and a QFN52 (6 x 6 mm) package with 35 GPIO […]

August 29, 2025August 29, 2025 by Debashis Das - No Comments

NXP MCX A34 mixed-signal Cortex-M33 MCU delivers 17x faster math acceleration for motor control and HVAC systems

NXP has launched the MCX A34 mixed-signal Arm Cortex-M33 industrial MCU, an upgrade of the MCX A14x and MCX A15x MCUs, which were introduced in 2024. While the A14x/A15x offered Cortex-M33 cores up to 96 MHz, 128 KB Flash, 32 KB SRAM, a 12-bit ADC, the A34 scales up with a 180 MHz core, up to 1 MB Flash, 256 KB SRAM, four 16-bit ADCs (3.2 Msps), four OpAmps, a 12-bit DAC, and FlexPWM with enhanced quadrature decoding. It also features a dedicated Math Acceleration Unit (MAU) that executes trigonometric, reciprocal, and square root operations up to 17x faster than CMSIS-DSP, a SmartDMA coprocessor for offloading data transfers, and advanced security features with tamper detection and secure boot. Connectivity is also richer, with up to six UARTs, four I²C, two SPI, and a CAN FD interface. MCX A34 specifications: MCU core – Arm Cortex-M33 core clocked at up to 180 […]