mcu News - Page 3 of 50 - CNX Software

June 20, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Alif Semi Ensemble E1C is an entry-level Cortex-M55 MCU with a 46 GOPS Ethos-U55 AI/ML accelerator

Alif Ensemble E1C AI/ML Cortex-M55 microcontroller

Alif Semi Ensemble E1C is an entry-level addition to the company’s Ensemble Cortex-A32M35 processors and microcontrollers with Ethos-U55 microNPUs that targets the very edge with a 160 MHz Cortex-M55 microcontroller and a 46 GOPS Ethos-U55 NPU. The Ensemble E1C is virtually the same as the E1 microcontroller but with less memory (2MB SRAM) and storage (up to 1.9MB non-volatile MRAM), and offered in more compact packages with 64, 90, or 120 pins as small as 3.9 x 3.9mm. Alif Semi Ensemble E1C specifications: CPU – Arm Cortex-M55 core up to 160 MHz with Helium Vector Processing Extension, 16KB Instruction and Data caches, Armv8.1-M ISA with Arm TrustZone; 4.37 CoreMark/MHz GPU – Optional D/AVE 2D Graphics Processing Unit MicroNPU – 1x Arm Ethos-U55 Neural Processing Unit with 128 MAC; up to 46 GOPS On-chip application memory Up to 1.9 MB MRAM Non-Volatile Memory Up to 2MB Zero Wait-State SRAM with optional […]

June 13, 2024June 13, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 10 Comments

JieLi Tech AC6329C4 is a 35 cents Bluetooth 5.0 microcontroller

JieLi Technology AC6329C4 is an ultra-cheap microcontroller with Bluetooth 5.0 connectivity and several I/Os including some for motor control that sells for just 35 cents on LCSC in single units, or 25 cents per piece for 1K+ orders. The microcontroller features a 32-bit RISC core clocked at 96 MHz with 73KB SRAM, and up to 4Mbit (512KB) flash. The 16-pin (SOP16) package offers plenty of multiplexed interfaces including USB 2.0, ADC, PWM, I2C, SPI, UART, and in-phase (I) and quadrature (Q) encoders. AC6329C4 specifications: CPU – 32-bit RISC CPU @ 96 MHz with Cache – 8KB I-cache 2-way, 1KB R/O cache 1-way 64x Vectored interrupts 8x Levels interrupt priority Memory – 73KB data RAM Storage – 4Mbit flash (another part called AC6329C2 comes with 2Mbit flash) Bluetooth CMOS single-chip fully-integrated radio and baseband Compliant with Bluetooth 5.0+BR+EDR+BLE specification Bluetooth Piconet and Scatternet support Meets class2 and class3 transmitting power requirement […]

May 29, 2024May 29, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 9 Comments

WCH CH32V002 32-bit RISC-V MCU comes with 4KB SRAM, supports 2V to 5V DC supply voltage

WCH CH32V002 is an industrial-grade general-purpose 32-bit RISC-V microcontroller that is pin-to-pin compatible with the popular CH32V003 MCU with 4KB SRAM instead of 2KB, a wider input voltage range from 2V to 5V, and other improvements. Earlier this month we wrote about the WCH CH32V006 RISC-V microcontroller that offers an upgrade to the CH32V003 with more I/Os, memory, and storage, requiring a new PCB layout. But now, the Chinese company has unveiled a pin-compatible alternative with the CH32V002 that adds more SRAM, uses the new V2C core with RV32EmC instruction set (also used in the CH32V006), offers a larger bootloader and configuration memories, upgrades the ADC to 12-bit, and adds support for 8-channel touch-key channel detection. WCH CH32V002 specifications (highlights in bold show differences against the CH32V003): CPU – 32-bit “RISC-V2C” core up to 48 MHz using RV32EmC instruction set Memory – 4KB SRAM Storage – 16KB flash, 3328 Bytes […]

May 21, 2024May 21, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

BreadboardOS firmware for the Raspberry Pi RP2040 features a Linux-like terminal

Cavin McKinley’s BreadboardOS is an open-source firmware platform for the Raspberry Pi RP2040 MCU (for now) built around FreeRTOS and with a feature-packed CLI that reminds me of the Linux terminal.

The terminal implementation is based on a fork of the microshell project with some additional customization. It is organized into POSIX-style folders/files providing a familiar user interface for interacting with the hardware on the MCU.

BreadboardOS running on Raspberry Pi Pico board

BreadboardOS highlights:

FreeRTOS-based
Tools for checking system resources such as ps, top, free, and df commands
Interaction with chip I/O and serial buses from the terminal using commands such as cat and echo, for example, you can print the list of GPIOs with:

May 14, 2024May 14, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 9 Comments

Rockchip RK2118G/RK2118M dual-core Star-SE Armv8-M microcontrollers target smart audio applications

Rockchip RK2118G microcontroller block diagram

Rockchip RK2118G and RK2118M smart audio microcontrollers based on a dual-core Star-SE Armv8-M processor, an NPU for smart AI audio processor, three DSPs, 1024KB SRAM, optional DDR memory in package, and a range of peripherals. I first noticed the RK2118M in slides from the Rockchip Developer Conference 2024 last March, but I did not have enough information for an article at the time. Things have now changed since I’ve just received a bunch of datasheets including the one for the RK2118G and RK2118G microcontrollers, which look identical except for the DDR interface and optional built-in 64MB RAM for the RK2118G. The datasheets have only one reference to Arm with the string “Arm-V8M” and nothing else, and Cortex is not mentioned at all. But the slide above reveals the STAR-SE core looks to be an Arm Cortex-M33 core. We also learn the top frequencies for the “STAR-M33″/”STAR-SE” core (300MHz) and the […]

May 9, 2024May 28, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

WCH CH32V006 RISC-V microcontroller adds more I/Os, memory, and storage compared to CH32V003

WCH CH32V006 RISC-V microcontroller is an upgrade to the 10-cent CH32V003 microcontroller with more I/Os, up to four times the memory, storage, a wider supply voltage range, the addition of a TouchKey interface, as well as a new 32-bit V2C RISC-V core instead of the V2A core found in the CH32V003. More specifically that means we went from the CH32V003 with 2KB SRAM and 8KB flash, up to 8KB SRAM and 62KB for the CH32V006, and 6KB SRAM and 32KB flash for the CH32V005, a smaller sibling of the new RISC-V microcontroller. WCH CH32V005 & CH32V006 specifications (with highlights in bold to show differences against CH32V003): CPU – 32-bit “RISC-V2C” core up to 48 MHz Memory – 6KB SRAM (CH32V005) or 8KB SRAM (CH32V006) Storage – 32KB flash (CH32V005) or 62KB flash (CH32V006) Peripherals Up to 31x GPIO with interrupt support (CH32V003 had up to 18x GPIO) 2x USART interfaces […]

May 8, 2024May 9, 2024 by Dennis Mwihia - 2 Comments

BitNetMCU project enables Machine Learning on CH32V003 RISC-V MCU

Neural networks and other machine learning processes are often associated with powerful processors and GPUs. However, as we’ve seen on the page, AI is also moving to the very edge, and the BitNetMCU open-source project further showcases that it is possible to run low-bit quantized neural networks on low-end RISC-V microcontrollers such as the inexpensive CH32V003. As a reminder, the CH32V003 is based on the QingKe 32-bit RISC-V2A processor, which supports two levels of interrupt nesting. It is a compact, low-power, general-purpose 48MHz microcontroller that has 2KB SRAM with 16KB flash. The chip comes in a TSSOP20, QFN20, SOP16, or SOP8 package. To run machine learning on the CH32V003 microcontroller, the BitNetMCU project does Quantization Aware Training (QAT) and fine-tunes the inference code and model structure, which makes it possible to surpass 99% test accuracy on a 16×16 MNIST dataset without using any multiplication instructions. This performance is impressive, considering […]

May 7, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Microchip PIC32CK 32-bit Arm Cortex-M33 MCU combines Hardware Security Module with Arm TrustZone for IoT cybersecurity compliance

Microchip PIC32CK is a new family of 32-bit Arm Cortex-M33 microcontrollers clocked up to 120 MHz with Arm Trustzone and an optional integrated Hardware Security Module (HSM) that can help companies meet the cybersecurity requirements for consumer IoT devices and critical infrastructure mandated in the US, Europe, and other countries. Two sub-families are available with the PIC32CK GC and PICK32CK SG with the latter integrating the HSM, and the company claims it is the first 32-bit device on the market that combines an HSM with TrustZone technology for optional security. The PIC32CK is also said to support ISO 26262 functional safety and ISO/SAE 21434 cybersecurity standards. Microchip PIC32CK specifications: MCU core – Arm Cortex-M33 clocked at up to 120 MHz with 4KB combined instruction and data cache, TrustZone security Memory and Storage 128KB, 256KB, or 512KB SRAM 512KB, 1MB, or 2MB flash 128KB boot flash memory 64KB of configuration flash […]