module News - CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

January 19, 2023January 19, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

CHIPSEA CST85F01 480 MHz Cortex-M4 MCU supports dual-band WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.0 LE

CHIPSEA CST85F01 is an Arm Cortex-M4F microcontroller clocked at up to 480 MHz and designed for IoT applications with dual-band (2.4/5.0 GHz) WiFi 6 with TWT (Target Wake Time) support, Bluetooth 5.0 LE, and a range of I/Os. Following the recent availability of 2.4 GHz WiFi 6 IoT chips such as Espressif Systems ESP32-C6 and Bouffalo Lab BL616, CHIPSEA CST85F01 offers an alternative with dual-band WiFi 6 connectivity while we are waiting for the launch of the ESP32-C5 RISC-V microcontroller. CST85F01 specifications: CPU core – Arm Cortex-M4F CPU with MPU and FPU @ up to 480 MHz Memory – 992 KB SRAM, SDR/DDR PSRAM interfaces Storage – 752 KB ROM, 8 Mbit to 128 Mbit flash WiFi features 2.4GHz/5GHz Wi-Fi 6 Data rates up to 286.8 Mbps (Tx) and 229.4 Mbps (Rx) with 20/40 MHz bandwidth Rx sensitivity – -98dBm in 11b mode, -93.5dBm in MCS0 HT20 mode Tx power […]

January 16, 2023January 16, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 9 Comments

$4 Sipeed M0S Dock IoT development board features BL616 WiFi 6, BLE 5.2, and Zigbee RISC-V microcontroller

As expected, Sipeed has now launched the Sipeed M0S IoT module based on Bouffalo Lab BL616 RISC-V microcontroller with 2.4 GHz WiFi 6, BLE 5.2, and Zigbee connectivity along with the “Sipeed M0S Dock” development board. The M0S is a tiny module (11×10 mm) with a 320 MHz wireless MCU, a ceramic antenna, and castellated holes for I/Os, and the Sipeed M0S Dock places the module on an easy-to-use board with a USB Type-C port, a BOOT button, and a 12-pin 2.54mm pitch header. Sipeed M0S module specifications: MCU – Bouffalo Lab BL616 32-bit RISC-V (RV32IMAFCP) microcontroller @ up to 320 MHz (384 MHz overclocked) with 480KB SRAM, 4MB flash, 2.4 GHz WiFi 6, Bluetooth 5.2 dual mode, and 802.15.4 radio (Zigbee) Antenna – Ceramic antenna (red component on module) I/Os – 25 castellated holes with RGB LCD DVP camera USB 2.0 OTG up to 480 Mbps I2C, UART, SPI […]

January 12, 2023January 13, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 18 Comments

ESP32-C6 WiFi 6, BLE, and 802.15.4 module and development board launched!

Espressif Systems has finally launched the ESP32-C6 WiFi 6, Bluetooth 5.0 LE, and 802.15.4 IoT microcontroller by making the ESP32-C6-WROOM-1 module available on Aliexpress for $14.25 for a pack of 5 modules as well as the ESP32-C6-DevKitC-1 development board that’s out of stock on the official store at the time of writing. but somehow listed in another store for $16.22 plus shipping. Besides the availability announcement, another surprise is the 802.15.4 radio for Zigbee and Thread that was not part of the original ESP32-C6 announcement in April 2021. The ESP32-C6-DevKitC-1 development board comes with a module with 8MB flash, exposes most of the I/O’s from the ESP32-C3, and comes with two USB-C ports, two buttons, and an RGB LED. ESP32-C6-DevKitC-1 development board specifications: Wireless module – ESP32-C6-WROOM-1 with ESP32-C6 single-core 32-bit RISC-V clocked up to 160 MHz 320KB ROM, 512KB SRAM, low-power RISC-V core @ up to 20 MHz […]

January 7, 2023January 7, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

Sub-$5 Cavli C16QS CAT1.bis cellular IoT module features Qualcomm QCX216 modem

Qualcomm QCX216 LTE IoT modem was announced at the end of last year as one of the first solutions supporting the new CAT1.bis standard enabling smaller, simpler, and cheaper modules with a single antenna design. This chip also integrates a WiFi scanner exclusively used for indoor positioning. Cavli Wireless C16QS CAT1.bis is one of the first cellular IoT modules based on the Qualcomm QCX216, and we now have a clearer idea of what “cheaper” means since the company says it will sell those for less than $5 to OEMs, although that price is likely in very high quantities, possibly 100k+ or one million pieces. Cavli C16QS specifications: Wireless IC – Qualcomm QCX216 with dual-core Cortex-M3 @ 204 MHz, cellular modem-RF Storage – 4 MB Cellular connectivity LTE CAT 1.bis based on 3GPP Release 14 Peak speeds – 10Mbps (DL), 5Mbps (UL) Bands EMEA: B1/B3/B5/B8/B20 North America : B2/B4/B12/B13/B66/B71 Integrated eSIM […]

January 2, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Walter ESP32-S3 board supports NB-IoT, LTE-M, and GPS

QuickSpot Walter is an ESP32-S3 development board with built-in WiFi 4 and Bluetooth LE/Mesh connectivity, as well as NB-IoT, LTE-M, and GNSS support through a Sequans GM02SP 5G IoT modem that appears to be a variant of the Sequans Monarch 2 GM02S with GNSS support. Walter specifications: Wireless modules ESP32-S3-WROOM-1-N16R2 module ESP32-S3 dual-core LX7 microcontroller 2MB QSPI PSRAM 16MB QSPI flash 802.11 b/g/n WiFi 4 up to 150 Mbps with on-board antenna Bluetooth 5 LE up to 2Mbps, Bluetooth Mesh Sequans GM02SP modem LTE Cat M1 (LTE-M) and NB1/NB2 (NB-IoT) GNSS and assisted GNSS using GPS and Galileo constellations NanoSIM for cellular connectivity I/Os 2x 14-pin headers with up to 24x GPIO, UART, VIN, 3.3V, and GND 23x test points 3.3V I/O voltage Power Supply 5V (3.0 to 5.5V) DC via VIN pin 5V via USB Type-C port Dimensions – 55 x 24.8 mm Temperature Range – -40°C to +85°C […]

December 29, 2022January 16, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 19 Comments

Bouffalo Lab BL616/BL618 RISC-V MCU supports WiFi 6, Bluetooth 5.2, and Zigbee

Bouffalo Lab BL616/BL618 is a 32-bit RISC-V wireless microcontroller with support for 2.4 GHz WiFi 6, Bluetooth 5.2 dual-mode, and an 802.15.4 radio for Zigbee, Thread, and Matter designed for IoT applications. We first spotted the BL616 RISC-V IoT MCU during the BL602/BL606 announcement in November 2020, but we had virtually no additional information about it so far. It appears both BL616 and BL618 will be launched next month with the main difference between the two being that BL616 has 19 GPIOs and BL618 comes with 35 GPIOs. Bouffalo Lab BL616 and BL618 specifications: MCU core – 32-bit RISC-V CPU (RV32IMAFCP) @ up to 320 MHz with FPU and DSP, 32KB instruction cache & 16KB data cache VPU – MJPEG video encoder Memory – 480KB SRAM, 4KB HBN RAM, embedded 4 or 8MB pSRAM (optional) Storage – 128KB ROM, 4Kb eFuse, embedded 2, 4, or 8MB flash (optional), XIP QSPI […]

November 14, 2022November 18, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 20 Comments

Sipeed M1s & M0sense – Low-cost BL808 & BL702 based AI modules (Crowdfunding)

Sipeed has launched the M1s and M0Sense AI modules. Designed for AIoT application, the Sipeed M1s is based on the Bouffalo Lab BL808 32-bit/64-bit RISC-V wireless SoC with WiFi, Bluetooth, and an 802.15.4 radio for Zigbee support, as well as the BLAI-100 (Bouffalo Lab AI engine) NPU for video/audio detection and/or recognition. The Sipeed M0Sense targets TinyML applications with the Bouffa Lab BL702 32-bit microcontroller also offering WiFi, BLE, and Zigbee connectivity. Sipeed M1s AIoT module The Sipeed M1S is an update to the Kendryte K210-powered Sipeed M1 introduced several years ago. Sipeed M1s module specifications: SoC – Bouffalo Lab BL808 with CPU Alibaba T-head C906 64-bit RISC-V (RV64GCV+) core @ 480MHz Alibaba T-head E907 32-bit RISC-V (RV32GCP+) core @ 320MHz 32-bit RISC-V (RV32EMC) core @ 160 MHz Memory – 768KB SRAM and 64MB embedded PSRAM AI accelerator – NPU BLAI-100 (Bouffalo Lab AI engine) for video/audio detection/recognition delivering up […]

October 18, 2022October 18, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 7 Comments

Espressif ESP8684 RISC-V WiFi & BLE MCU embeds up to 4MB flash in a 4x4mm package

Espressif Systems ESP8684 is a single-core RISC-V microcontroller with 2.4 GHz WiFi 4 and Bluetooth 5.0 LE (BLE) connectivity that also integrates 1, 2, or 4MB flash into a tiny 4x4mm QFN package. The SoC is listed under the ESP32-C2 product family on the Espressif website and can be found in MINI and WROOM modules, as well as the ESP8684-DevKitM-1 development kit. All three parts, namely ESP8684H1, ESP8684H2, and ESP8684H4, are designed to work in the -40 to 105°C temperature range, ESP8684 specifications: CPU – 32-bit RISC-V processor up to 120 MHz; 305.42 CoreMark; 2.55 CoreMark/MHz Memory – 272 KB SRAM (16 KB for cache) Storage – 576 KB ROM, 1 to 4MB flash (SiP) Wireless 802.11 b/g/n-compliant WiFi 4 1T1R Up to 72.2 Mbps link rate Support for 20 MHz bandwidth Station mode, SoftAP mode, Station + SoftAP mode Wi-Fi Multimedia (WMM) Antenna diversity Bluetooth 5 LE up to […]