Not to be confused with the just-released STM32U3B5/C5 ultra-low-power MCUs, the entry-level STM32C5 Arm Cortex-M33 MCU family is designed for industrial sensors, smart home devices, electronic locks, thermostats, wearables, robotic actuators, and computer peripherals. The MCUs are manufactured using ST’s 40 nm flash process, clocked at up to 144 MHz, and feature 128 KB to 1 MB of flash and up to 256 KB of SRAM, with a dynamic power consumption of <80 µA/MHz. Key features include Ethernet, USB, OctoSPI, CAN bus, DMA, and various peripherals, including ADCs, comparators, and an op-amp. Security is also enhanced, with the series targeting SESIP3 and PSA Certified Level 3 through features such as side-channel attack-resistant crypto, Hardware Unique Keys (HUK), and a Coupling and Chaining Bridge (CCB) for secure key storage. STM32C5 key features and specifications: MCU core Arm Cortex-M33 32-bit CPU @ 144 MHz with single-precision FPU, DSP instructions, and MPU Performance […]
Echo Pyramid enables smart voice interaction applications on M5Stack Atom ESP32 IoT controllers
Designed for M5Stack Atom, AtomS3, and AtomS3R series IoT controllers based on ESP32 or ESP32-S3 wireless SoC, the Echo Pyramid base enables smart voice interaction applications such as far-field voice recognition, voice assistants, voice control, and more. The device features a built-in speaker, a MEMS microphone, an ES8311 HD audio codec for playback and capture, and an STM32 MCU for touch areas and RGB LED management. It’s powered via a USB Type-C port and can be expanded through a 4-pin connector for I2C modules. Echo Pyramid specifications: Supported IoT controllers – M5Stack Atom, AtomS3, and AtomS3R Microcontroller – STMicro STM32G030F6P6 32-bit Arm Cortex-M0+ CPU @ 64 MHz with 8KB SRAM, 64 KB flash Audio HD Codec – ES8311, handles playback and recording Microphone – LMA3729T381-0Y3S MEMS microphone ADC – ES7210 for microphone input Built-in speaker on the bottom of the pyramid Amplifier – AW87559 Class-D speaker driver for the speaker […]
STM32U3B5/C5 ultra-low-power MCU features 640 KB RAM, 2 MB Flash, and HSP accelerator to run AI without batteries
STMicroelectronics has added two members to the STM32U3 ultra-low-power Arm Cortex-M33 microcontroller family: the STM32U3B5 and STM32U3C5 MCUs get more resources with up to 640 KB SRAM and 2 MB flash, as well as an HSP (hardware signal processor) accelerator to run AI/ML workloads without batteries, just using energy harvesting. The new chips are still clocked at up to 96 MHz, benefit from a near-threshold design (down to 0.65 V), allowing a power consumption of just 117 Coremark/mW in active mode, and can operate up to 105°C ambient temperature. They come with one additional group of interfaces, bringing the total to four SPI and I2C, two I3C and CAN-FD, and five UARTs, as well as five more 16-bit timers, for a total of 10. The STM32U3C5 also includes a cryptocore to accelerate encryption and decryption operations, and supports the CCB (Coupling and Chaining Bridge) hardware security feature, both of which […]
$199+ M5Stack AI Pyramid Computing Box Linux AI mini PC is based on Axera AX8850 SoC
M5Stack has just launched the “AI Pyramid Computer Box” AI mini PC powered by an Axera AX8850 octa-core Cortex-A55 SoC with a 24 TOPS NPU and featuring an unusual design since it’s housed in a pyramidal enclosure. The mini PC features 4GB or 8GB of RAM, 32GB eMMC flash, a microSD card slot, two HDMI 2.0 ports (see specs for details), a 4-mic array, a built-in speaker, two Gigabit Ethernet ports, four USB 3.2 ports, and two USB-C ports for data and power. It serves as a desktop-grade Edge AI computing platform for systems such as AI vision gateways, smart security systems, and local smart photo albums. M5Stack AI Pyramid Computing Box specifications: SoC – Axera AX8850 CPU – Octa-core Cortex‑A55 processor at 1.7 GHz NPU – 24 TOPS @ INT8 VPU Video Encoder – 8K @ 30 fps H.264/H.265 encoding, supports scaling / cropping Video Decoder – 8K @ 60 fps H.264/H.265 decoding, supports 16 channels 1080p parallel decoding, […]
Ariel OS – A Rust RTOS for IoT microcontrollers
Ariel OS is a new RTOS for microcontrollers written in Rust with support for popular hardware architectures (Arm Cortex-M, ESP32, RISC-V) and boards from Espressif, Nordic Semi, Raspberry Pi, and STMicroelectronics. Ariel OS is built on top of Embassy Rust framework and embedded-hal Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) for embedded systems, and adds several OS functionalities and a multi-core capable scheduler. It is mainly designed for secure, memory-safe, networked applications on microcontrollers. The developers further describe Ariel OS as follows on the project’s website: Ariel OS follows an approach whereby it simultaneously integrates a curated ecosystem of libraries (available via crates.io), and adds missing operating system functionalities as depicted below. Such functionalities include a preemptive multicore scheduler, portable peripheral APIs, additional network security facilities, as well as a meta-build system to bind it all together. As a result, a low-power IoT developer can focus on business logic sitting on top of […]
Hiwonder WonderLLM – An ESP32-S3 smart chat module with 2-inch touch display, 2MP camera, and dedicated voice chip
Hiwonder has introduced the WonderLLM, an ESP32-S3-based smart chat module that combines a 2MP camera, a 2.0-inch touch display, a speaker, and a microphone array to support both offline computer vision tasks and cloud-based Large Language Models (LLMs) via the XiaoZhi AI platform. The device ships with a dedicated voice chip (CI1302) that enables always-on wake-word detection, and a 4-pin I2C interface allows it to act as a smart vision/voice sensor for external controllers like Arduino, STM32, or other ESP32 boards. Typical applications include small robots, STEM education kits, interactive assistants, and vision-enabled projects where this device handles perception and interaction, and another MCU manages motion and control logic. Hiwonder WonderLLM specifications: Wireless Module – ESP32-S3-WROOM-1 SoC – Espressif Systems ESP32-S3 CPU – Dual-core Tensilica LX7 up to 240 MHz with vector extension for AI/ML workloads RAM – 512KB SRAM Storage – TBD Wireless – WiFi 4 and Bluetooth LE 5 […]
Arduino UNO Q 4GB board with 4GB RAM, 32GB storage is now available for $59
When the Arduino UNO Q was first unveiled in October 2025, the specifications of the Qualcomm DragonWing SBC listed the ABX00162 SKU with 2GB RAM and 16GB eMMC flash, and the ABX00173 SKU with 4GB RAM and 32GB eMMC flash. So far, only the 2GB variant was available, and Arduino has now announced the availability of the Arduino UNO Q 4GB with 4GB of RAM and 32GB eMMC storage for more complex projects. Arduino UNO Q 4GB (ABX00173) specifications: Application SoC/MPU – Qualcomm QRB2210 CPU – Quad-core Cortex-A53 processor at up to 2.0 GHz GPU – Adreno 702 GPU at 845 MHz with support for OpenGL ES 3.1, Vulkan 1.1, OpenCL 2.0 DSP – Hexagon QDSP6 v66 VPU – 1080p 30 fps encode / 1080p 30fps decode ISP – 2x Image Signal Processor (13 MP + 13 MP or 25 MP) @ 30 fps Real-time MCU – STMicro STM32U585 Arm Cortex-M33 microcontroller […]
STM32MP21 Arm Cortex-A35/M33 MPU targets cost-effective applications in smart factories, homes, and cities
STMicroelectronics’ STM32MP21 microprocessor family combines a 1.5 GHz 64-bit Arm Cortex-A35 application core with a 300 MHz 32-bit Arm Cortex-M33 core for real-time processing. It is designed for “cost-aware” edge applications in smart factories, smart homes, and smart cities. The new STM32MP21 is a cost-optimized version of the earlier STM32MP23 and STM32MP25 that does without an AI accelerator (yes, those still exist!), GPU, H.264 decoder and encoder, or PCIe Gen2 / USB 3.0 interfaces. It still offers a MIPI CSI-2 camera interface, two Gigabit Ethernet interfaces with Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN), and strong security targeting SESIP Level 3 and PCI pre-certification. STM32MP21 specifications: CPU – Arm Cortex-A35 core running at up to 1.2 or 1.5 GHz with 128KB L2 cache Real-time MCU – Arm Cortex-M33 core with FPU/MPU running at up to 300 MHz GPU – None VPU – None AI accelerator – None Memory 456 KB SRAM 256KB AXI SYSRAM […]

