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December 12, 2025 by Debashis Das - 3 Comments

Renesas RA6W1/RA6W2 Cortex-M33 wireless MCUs offer dual-band Wi-Fi 6, BLE, Matter, 15-year availability

Renesas RA6W1 and RA6W2 dual band Wi Fi 6, BLE, Matter Cortex M33 Wireless MCU

Renesas has added the RA6W1 (Wi-Fi 6) and the RA6W2 (Wi-Fi 6 + BLE) MCUs to its high-performance RA6 family, adding dual-band Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth LE, as well as Matter connectivity to the series. Both models feature a 160 MHz Arm Cortex-M33 core, dual-band Wi-Fi 6 with WPA3 security, on-chip PA/LNA/RF switch, and a full TCP/IP stack for fast connectivity. They integrate up to 704 KB SRAM, 256 KB ROM, and support eMMC/SD, O-QSPI, and QSPI for external flash and/or PSRAM. The series also includes generic peripherals like SPI, I²C, I²S/PDM, SDIO, 12-bit ADCs, PWM timers, and up to 28 GPIOs. Offered in compact QFN/WLCSP packages, the RA6W1/2 MCUs target smart home, wearables, industrial, and consumer IoT markets where long battery life and wireless connectivity are essential. Renesas RA6W1 specifications: MCU core – Arm Cortex-M33 @ up to 160 MHz, Armv8-M architecture with MPU and SysTick Memory & Storage […]

November 26, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

AMD Spartan UltraScale+ SU35P FPGA evaluation kit supports Raspberry Pi, Arduino, Mikrobus, and Pmod expansion

AMD’s SCU35 Evaluation Kit is an affordable ($229) development board powered by the AMD Spartan UltraScale+ SU35P FPGA device, which targets low-power industrial, medical, and data center applications requiring I/O expansion and board management capabilities. Designed for headless applications, the board features a 10/100 Mbps Ethernet port and a USB-C port for power, as well as plenty of headers and connectors compatible with off-the-shelf expansion boards or modules, including Arduino UNO headers, two 40-pin Raspberry Pi GPIO headers, two Mikrobus headers, four Pmod connectors, and an HSIO board-to-board connector. AMD SCU35 evaluation kit specifications: FPGA – AMD Spartan Ultrascale+ SU35P (XCSU35P-2SBVB625E) 36K Logic Cells 304 Max Total I/O• Board Management Controller Memory – 1.93 Mb on-chip memory Memory – 64 Mbit HyperRAM Storage 128 Mbit QSPI flash 64 Kbit EEPROM Networking – 10/100Mbps Ethernet RJ45 port Sensor – 3-axis linear accelerometer Expansion Arduino UNO headers 2x 40-pin Raspberry Pi […]

November 17, 2025 by Debashis Das - No Comments

Nuvoton NuMicro M55M1 low-power Arm Cortex-M55 MCU enables on-device AI with Ethos-U55 NPU

Nuvoton’s NuMicro M55M1 is a low-power AI MCU that combines a 220 MHz Arm Cortex-M55 CPU with a 111 GOPS Ethos-U55 NPU to run basic AI tasks on-device. It specifically targets small IoT and embedded devices that need low-power voice, audio, or simple image processing. The chip embeds 1.5 MB RAM, 2 MB flash, and supports external OctoSPI/HyperRAM memory. Connectivity options include Ethernet, USB-OTG, CAN-FD, I3C/I2C/SPI, SDIO, and an 8-bit camera interface, along with ADCs, DACs, comparators, PWM, and multiple low-power modes. It’s built for secure IoT applications with Arm TrustZone, secure boot, AES, and PSA Level 2 certification. Typical uses include voice triggers, smart sensors, simple vision nodes, small appliances, and industrial monitoring devices. Nuvoton NuMicro M55M1 specifications: CPU Core – 220 MHz Arm Cortex-M55 core Architecture – Armv8.1-M with Helium M-Profile Vector Extension (MVE) Arm TrustZone Technology DSP extensions Hardware Floating-point Unit (FPU), double-precision Cache – 16KB I-Cache […]

October 28, 2025October 27, 2025 by Debashis Das - 3 Comments

Microchip PIC32-BZ6 BLE 6.0, Thread, and Matter wireless MCU integrates touch and motor control

Microchip IC32 BZ6 single chip wireless MCU

Microchip has recently introduced the PIC32-BZ6 family of single-chip, multiprotocol wireless MCUs, also available as RF-certified modules, and designed for smart home, industrial automation, and automotive applications. The module supports Bluetooth LE 6.0, IEEE 802.15.4-based Thread and Matter, and proprietary mesh protocols. For wired connectivity, there are two CAN-FD ports, a 10/100 Mbps Ethernet MAC, and a USB 2.0 full-speed transceiver. Other features include CVD-based touch sensing and motor control interfaces for interactive and real-time applications. As a secure MCU, the PIC32-BZ6 integrates a hardware-based security engine, a secure boot ROM, and encryption accelerators, along with OTA update capability for long-term device management. The microcontroller offers up to 54 GPIO pins, multiple pin and package options (up to 132-pin VQFN), and automotive-grade variants rated for -40°C to +125°C operation. Microchip PIC32-BZ6 specifications: MCU Core – 128 MHz Arm Cortex-M4F with FPU and DSP extensions Memory 512 KB multi-port SRAM (with […]

October 27, 2025October 26, 2025 by Debashis Das - No Comments

1GHz Renesas RA8D2 and RA8M2 Cortex-M85 MCUs feature up to 1MB MRAM, 2MB SRAM

Renesas RA8M2 and RA8D2 dual core Cortex M85, M33 MCU with MRAM storage

After introducing the 1 GHz RA8T2 MCU earlier this month, Renesas has recently expanded its RA8 lineup with the RA8D2 and RA8M2 groups of MCUs, where the RA8D2 is designed for graphics, HMI, and AI applications with support for display, camera, and audio interfaces, while the RA8M2 targets general-purpose, high-performance IoT and industrial control systems with networking and compute capabilities. Both MCU groups deliver a performance of up to 7,300 Coremarks, offer up to 1MB of MRAM and 2MB of SRAM, and support SiP options with up to 8MB flash. The RA8D2 adds HMI capabilities, including a 1280×800 graphics LCD controller, a 2D drawing engine, MIPI DSI and CSI-2 interfaces, and audio input support for voice and vision AI. Common features include dual Gigabit Ethernet with TSN, USB 2.0, CAN FD, I3C, and various analog peripherals. Integrated RSIP-E50D security, Helium acceleration for DSP/ML with various software support. Renesas RA8D2 and […]

August 14, 2025November 2, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 13 Comments

Banana Pi BPI-R4 Lite – A mid-range MediaTek Filogic 850 2.5GbE router board with WiFi 7 and 5G support

Mediatek Filogic 850 2.5GbE WiFi 7 5G router board

Banana Pi BPI-R4 Lite is a mid-range 2.5GbE router board based on MediaTek Filogic 850 (MT7987AV) quad-core Cortex-A53 network processor, coupled with 2GB DDR4 and 8GB eMMC flash, and equipped with four gigabit Ethernet ports, a 2.5GbE RJ45 WAN port, and a 2.5GbE SFP cage. It’s a cost-down version of the Banana Pi BPI-R4 router board powered by a Filogic 880 quad-core Cortex-A73 SoC with 10GbE support. It still supports WiFi 7 through the BPI-R4-NIC-BE14 dual mini PCIe WiFi 7 module and 4G LTE and 5G connectivity through an M.2 Key-B socket and three NanoSIM card slots. Banana Pi BPI-R4 Lite specifications: SoC – MediaTek MT7987AV (Filogic 850) quad-core Arm Cortex-A53 processor @ 2.0 GHz with Network Processing Unit (NPU) capable of up to 7.5Gbps packet processing System Memory – 2GB DDR4 (SoC supports up to 4GB) Storage – 8GB eMMC flash, microSD card Networking 2.5GbE WAN port 2.5GbE SFP […]

July 2, 2025July 3, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Renesas R8P1 – A 1 GHz Arm Cortex-M85 microcontroller with Ethos-U55 NPU for Audio and Vision AI applications

Renesas has introduced its most powerful Cortex-A85 microcontroller to date: the R8P1, clocked at 1 GHz and equipped with a 500 MHz Arm Ethos-U55 NPU for edge AI applications, as well as an Arm Cortex-M33 real-time core clocked at 250 MHz. With a 2D GPU, MIPI DSI and parallel RGB display interfaces, MIPI CSI and parallel camera interfaces, and I2S and PDM audio interface, the Renesas RA8P1 is mainly designed to address Voice AI and Vision AI applications requiring real-time analytics. The 1 GHz microcontroller also has plenty of other peripherals and security features, as we can see from the specifications and block diagram below. Renesas RA8P1 specifications: MCU core Arm Cortex-M85 clocked at 1 GHz with Helium MVE (M-Profile Vector Extension) with 32KB I/D caches; 7300+ CoreMarks Arm Cortex-M33 clocked at 250 MHz with 32KB I/D caches GPU – 2D drawing engine NPU – Arm Ethos-U55 NPU delivering 256 […]

June 13, 2025June 13, 2025 by Debashis Das - No Comments

Renesas RA2L2 – The first low-power MCU with USB-C Revision 2.4 support

Renesas RA2L2 is the world’s first low-power MCU to support the USB-C Revision 2.4 standard with 15W CC detection, USB FS support. It also offers support for CAN Bus, I3C, and low-power UART. The announcement follows other devices from the Renesas RA series, such as the RA2A2 Arm Cortex-M23 MCU introduced in 2024, and the RA4L1 ultra-low-power MCU unveiled earlier this year with just 168 µA/MHz operation, dual-bank flash, and capacitive touch. The RA2L2 Cortex-M23 microcontroller also embeds up to 128KB of code flash, 16KB SRAM, and 4KB data flash for EEPROM-like storage. It supports a wide 1.6V to 5.5V supply voltage and an industrial-grade -40°C to +125°C temperature range. The MCU also integrates a ±1% high-accuracy on-chip oscillator, multiple timers including 16-bit and 32-bit PWM and low-power asynchronous timers, a 12-bit ADC, a real-time clock, and an internal temperature sensor. It’s available in 32- to 64-pin packages and offers […]