Cypress PSoC 64 Microcontrollers Target Secure IoT Applications

PSoC 64 Secure MCU

If you are like me, you probably don’t remember, but back in 2017 Arm announced the Platform Security Architecture (PSA) that defines a set of requirements to secure low cost Internet of Things devices. There’s now at least one PSA compliant microcontroller, as Cypress Semiconductor introduced their PSoC 64 Secure MCU at Embedded World 2019 last month. The press release claims that PSoC 64 MCU family is one of “the first Arm Cortex-M processors to be certified as Level 1 compliant within the Arm Platform Security Architecture (PSA) certification scheme, PSA Certified, utilizing a secure Trusted Firmware-M (TF-M) implementation integrated into the Arm Mbed OS open-source embedded operating system”. PSoC 64 secure MCU key features and specifications: Arm Cortex-M4F core with 22‑µA/MHz active power consumption Optional Arm Cortex-M0+ core with 15‑µA/MHz power consumption System Memory – 160KB to 1MB SRAM Storage – 512KB to 2MB flash Security HW Cryptography – […]

TechNexion AXON and FLEX SoM Families Feature i.MX 8M Mini SoC, FPGA Fabric

AXON-IMX8M-MINI

Taiwan based Technexion has introduced several new products at Embedded World 2019 including two new SoM families: AXON and FLEX. AXON is a product family of small form factor (58 x 37 mm) modules designed for specialized embedded applications requiring extra I/O flexibility, while FLEX series is a low-cost family making use of the standard LPDDR4 SO-DIMM connector. Specifically, the company launched new AXON and FLEX modules powered by NXP i.MX 8M Mini processor with AXON-IMX8M-MINI featuring AXON Fabric programmable logic, a specialized IC that provides additional functions including nearly infinite pinmuxing, and FLEX-IMX8M-MINI that offers HD multimedia streaming and integrated 3D graphics for cost sensitive applications. AXON-IMX8M-MINI SoM AXON-IMX8M-MINI SoM specifications: SoC – NXP i.MX 8M Mini Solo, Dual or Quad Arm Cortex-A53+M4 processor FPGA – “Axon Fabric” making use of a Lattice MachXO3LF FPGA with 2100 LUTs (LookUp Tables) System Memory – Up to 4GB LPDDR4 RAM Storage […]

TI AM5729 Powered BeagleBone-AI Comes with TI C66x DSP and EVE Cores

BeagleBone-AI

Launched in 2013, BeagleBone Black is still one of the most popular hobbyist board thanks to its many I/Os, software support, and affordable price with being the cheapest board around those days. But it looks like we’ll soon have a new version that allows to experiment with artificial intelligence workloads. BeagleBone-AI is powered by Texas Instruments AM5729 SoC equipped with TI C66x digital-signal-processor (DSP) cores and embedded-vision-engine (EVE) cores supported through a TIDL (Texas Instruments Deep Learning) machine learning OpenCL API. BeagleBone-AI preliminary specifications: SoC – TI AM5729 dual core Cortex-A15 processor featuring 4 PRUs, Dual core C66x DSP, and 4 EVEs System Memory – 1GB RAM Storage – 16GB on-board eMMC flash with high-speed interface Networking – Gigabit Ethernet and high-speed WiFi SB – 1x USB type-C for power and superspeed dual-role controller, 1x USB type-A host Expansion – BeagleBone Black (BBB) compatible headers Dimensions – 86.4 x 53.4 […]

NXP i.MX 8M Nano is a Power-optimized Arm Cortex-A53/M7 Processor

NXP i.MX 8M Nano

NXP introduced their first 14nm i.MX processor at Embedded World 2018 last year with i.MX 8 Mini processor equipped with up to four Cortex A53 cores clocked at 2.0 GHz and one real-time Cortex-M4 cores clocked at 400+ MHz, and optional 1080p video output and decoding/encoding. The company has now added another 14nm member to their i.MX 8M family with NXP i.MX 8M Nano family also featuring four Cortex-A53 cores at up to 1.5 GHz, but replacing the Cortex-M4 by a more powerful Cortex-M7 core clocked at up to 600 MHz. The processor is also power-optimized for less than 2W total dynamic power (TDP) and sub-watt in many IoT edge applications. NXP i.MX 8M Nano key features and specifications: Application cores – One to four Arm Cortex-A53 cores up to 1.5 GHz per core; 32KB L1-I Cache/ 32 KB L1-D Cache; 512 KB L2 Cache Real-time core – Arm Cortex-M7 […]

Octavo Systems Unveils OSD32MP15x STM32MP1 SiP (System-in-Package)

Octavo Systems OSD32MP15X STM32MP1 SiP

STMicro STM32MP1 is one of the most interesting microprocessor recently announced, as it should allow a relatively easy upgrade path for projects based on the traditional STM32 Cortex-M4 microcontrollers, thanks to backward compatibility, and the extra one or two Arm Cortex-A7 cores enabling Linux support. We’ve already seen several upcoming evaluation and development boards based on STM32MP157 processor including STMicro’s own discovery kits and evaluation platform, as well as Arrow Electronics Avenger96 board fitted with a tiny 29x29mm SoM.  But I suspect we could see even more compact designs soon, as Octavo Systems has now unveiled OSD32MP15x system-in-package with STM32MP15x MPU, up to 1GB RAM, 4K EEPROM, STPMIC1 power management IC, two oscillators, and over 100 passive components all brought together into a 18x18mm package. Octavo Systems OSD32MP15x system-in-package main components and specifications: MPU (MicroProcessor Unit) – STMicroelectronics STM32MP15x with Dual Arm Cortex-A7 @ 650MHz, Arm Cortex-M4 real-time core @ […]

Systems-on-Module Market Update – An Interview with Toradex CMO

Daniel Lang Toradex CMO

I’ve been interviewing Daniel Lang, Toradex Chief Marketing Officer (CMO), over email just before Embedded World 2019, to learn a bit more about the system-on-module market, and what’s ahead. CNXSoft: We’ve already covered several Toradex systems-on-module and development kits on CNX Software, but for readers who may not know Toradex yet, could you provide a short description of what the company does in the embedded systems space? Daniel Lang: Thanks for having me. Toradex builds high reliable Arm-based System on Modules. Our focus is to make the life of developers easier and to reduce the complexity and time-to-market. We sell hardware, but most of our engineering resources focus on Software and Support. Our products are used in areas such as Industrial Automation, Medical, Transportation, Test and Measurement, Building Automation and many more. CNXSoft: Could you explain why / what type of customers go the SoM route instead of designing for […]

Renesas RZ/G2 64-Bit MPUs Target Industrial Applications Leveraging SLTS Linux

RZ/G2M 96 Development Kit

Renesas RZ/G1 Cortex-A15/A7 processor series was introduced in 2016 targeting industrial human machine interface, and RZ/G1M was one the the first processors supported by the industrial-grade CIP Super Long-Term Support (SLTS) Linux kernel – as part of Renesas RZ/G Linux Platform – with commitment of over 10 years of support. The company has now launched a 64-bit version of the industrial processors with Renesas RZ/G2 family featuring up to eight Cortex-A53/A57 cores and supported by RZ/G Linux Platform for long term Linux support. Renesas RZ/G2 family is now comprised of four SKUs with the following key features and specifications. RZ/G2 Series RZ/G2E RZ/G2N RZ/G2M RZ/G2H Economical Mid-Range (Pin Compatible) Highest Performance CPU (64-bit ARMv8A) 2x Cortex-A53 @ 1.2GHz L1, L2 Parity/ECC 2x Cortex-A57 @ 1.5GHz L1, L2 Parity/ECC 2x Cortex-A57 @ 1.5GHz 4x Cortex-A53 @ 1.2GHz L1, L2 Parity/ECC 4x Cortex-A57 @ 1.5GHz 4x Cortex-A53 @ 1.2GHz L1, L2 Parity/ECC […]

STMicro STM32MP1 Cortex A7/M4 MPU Supports Linux and Android

STM32MP157 STM32MP153 STM32MP151

When Linux 4.17 was released last June, we discovered an interesting new STM32 part: STM32MP157C dual core Cortex-A7 processor. It was the first time I saw an STM32 IC not based on Arm Cortex-M microcontroller core, but we knew only very little details at the time. STMicro has now made it official, and introduced STM32MP1, the first STM32 MPU (Microprocessor Unit) that features one or two Arm Cortex-A7 cores running Linux, as well as an Arm Cortex-M4 real-time core that allows to re-use code from existing STM32 projects. STM32MP1 key features and specifications: Cores Single or Dual Cortex-A7 core(s) running at 650 MHz with 32-Kbyte L1 Instruction cache, 32-Kbyte L1 Data cache, 256-Kbyte Level 2 cache Cortex-M4 core running at 209 MHz with single-precision floating point unit (FPU), digital signal processor (DSP) instructions, and memory protection unit (MPU) GPU (STM32MP157 only) – Vivante 3D GPU with OpenGL ES 2.0 support; […]

UP 7000 x86 SBC