NXP launches MCX A14x and MCX A15x Arm Cortex-M33 MCUs along with FRDM-MCXA153 development board

FRDM-MCXA153 MCX development board

NXP has just announced the launch of the MCX A series Arm Cortex-M33 microcontrollers with the MCX A14x running up to 48 MHz and the MCX A15x running up to 96 MHz. The devices support up to 128KB flash and 32KB SRAM, offer I2C, I3C, and SPI sensor interfaces, and integrate support for BLDC/PMSM motor control. NXP first unveiled the NXP MCX general-purpose Arm MCU family with 30 times faster machine learning at Embedded World 2022, but at the time we had limited information although four series were planned with the MCX N Advanced series up to 250 MHz, the MCX A essential series up to 96 MHz, the MCX W Wireless series with Bluetooth LE, and the MCX L Low-power series. The MCX A series has just been launched, and the high-end MCX N also has its own product page with the N94x and N54x variants. We’ll focus on […]

FOSDEM 2024 schedule – Open-source embedded, mobile, IoT, robotics, RISC-V, etc..

FOSDEM 2024

FOSDEM – which stands for Free and Open Source Software Developers’ European Meeting – is a free-to-participate event where thousands of developers meet in Brussels on the first week-end of February to discuss open-source software & hardware projects. FOSDEM 2024 will take place on February 3-4 with 880 speakers, 818 events, and 66 tracks. Although I won’t attend, I’ve created a virtual schedule like every year with sessions most relevant to the topics covered on CNX Software from the “Embedded, Mobile and Automotive” and “Open Hardware and CAD/CAM” devrooms, but also other devrooms including “FOSS Mobile Devices”, “ Energy: Reimagining this Ecosystem through Open Source”, “RISC-V”, and others. FOSDEM Day 1 – Saturday, February 3, 2024 10:30 – 10:55 – Screen Sharing on Raspberry Pi 5 Using VNC in Weston and Wayland with the Yocto Project and OpenEmbedded by Leon Anavi In 2023, embedded Linux developers received eagerly awaited news: […]

$16 Grove Vision AI V2 module features WiseEye2 HX6538 Arm Cortex-M55 & Ethos-U55 AI microcontroller

Grove Vision AI V2 XIAO ESP32-C3 OV5647 camera

Seeed Studio’s Grove Vision AI V2 module is based on the HiMax WiseEye2 HX6538 dual-core Cortex-M55 AI microcontroller with an Arm Ethos-U55 microNPU and features a MIPI CSI connector for an OV5647 camera. It is designed for AI computer vision applications using TensorFlow and PyTorch frameworks and connects to hosts such as Raspberry Pi SBCs, ESP32 IoT boards, Arduino, and other maker boards over I2C. We tested the previous generation Grove Vision AI module based on the 400 MHz HX6537-A DSP-based AI accelerator using the SenseCAP K1100 sensor prototype kit with LoRaWAN connectivity, and managed to have the kit perform face detection and send the data over LoRaWAN. The Grove Vision AI V2 builds on that but with a modern Arm MCU core and more powerful AI accelerator that can run models such as Mobilenet V1/V2, Efficientnet-lite, and Yolo v5 & v8 using the SenseCraft low-code/no-code platform. Grove Vision AI […]

Infineon launches PSoC Edge Cortex-M55/M33 microcontrollers for enhanced AI and ML applications

The PSoC Edge microcontrollers integrate the Arm Cortex-M55 core with Helium DSP and the Ethos U55 NPU unit for advanced AI tasks. It also includes a power-efficient Arm Cortex-M33 core paired with an NNLite(DSP/NPU) for simpler AI tasks.

Infineon’s new PSoC Edge series of microcontrollers integrates the Arm Cortex-M55 core with Helium DSP and the Ethos U55 NPU unit for advanced AI tasks. It also includes a power-efficient Arm Cortex-M33 core paired with an NNLite(DSP/NPU) for simpler AI tasks. This setup allows the device to be more efficient in varying load conditions. Infineon’s PSoC lineup is a configurable microcontroller powered by Arm Cortex-M4, Cortex-M3, or Cortex-M0+ cores. The main USP (Unique Selling Point) of this lineup is its configurable digital and analog components. This feature makes them somewhat similar to an FPGA, but an FPGA is far more difficult to program than these microcontrollers and they are also very power-hungry. The device is equipped with advanced HMI and “Always-on” capability. “Always-on” is a feature of this device to constantly monitors and responds to signals automatically, making it suitable for smart homes, security, wearables, robotics, and many more. Key […]

Renesas RA8D1 Arm Cortex-M85 SoC features LCD display interfaces, 2D graphics accelerator

Renesas RA8D1

Renesas RA8D1 is a new Arm Cortex-M85 microcontroller with graphics capabilities such as a 2D graphics accelerator and MIPI DSI and parallel RGB interfaces to connect an LCD that will make the chip suitable for HMI applications. Renesas introduced the world’s first Arm Cortex-M85 microcontroller with the RA8M1 just a few weeks ago, but the MCU has limited multimedia capabilities with just a 16-bit Capture Engine Unit (CEU) interface to connect a camera. The second member of the Renesas RA8 family fills this void with the RA8D1 microcontroller adding an LCD controller and a 2D graphics drawing engine on top of the CEU camera interface. Renesas RA8D1 specifications: MCU core – Arm Cortex-M85 clocked at 480 MHz with Helium MVE (M-Profile Vector Extension) with 32KB I/D caches, 12KB data flash Memory & Storage 1MB SRAM with TCM (128KB) 1MB to 2MB Flash memory 32-bit external SDRAM interface Display interfaces and […]

Tokay Lite – A battery-powered no-code AI camera based on ESP32-S3 WiSoC (Crowdfunding)

Tokay Lite ESP32-S3 no-code AI camera

Maxlab’s Tokay Lite is an OHSWA-certified AI camera based on ESP32-S3 WiFI and Bluetooth SoC that can be used for computer vision (e.g. facial recognition & detection) and robotics applications without the need to know programming languages since a web interface is used for configuration. The WiFi and Bluetooth AI camera also features night vision with four IR LEDs, an IR cut filter, light and PIR motion sensors, a 20-pin expansion connector with SPI and UART, support for an external RTC, and can take power from USB-C or a LiPo battery. Tokay Lite specifications: Wireless module ESP32-S3-WROOM-1 MCU – ESP32-S3 dual-core LX7 microprocessor @ up to 240 MHz with Vector extension for machine learning, 512 KB SRAM Memory – 8MB PSRAM Storage – 8MB SPI flash Connectivity – WiFi 4 and Bluetooth 5 with LE/Mesh PCB antenna Certifications – FCC/CE certification Camera OV2640 camera sensor (replaceable) via DVP interface Image Capabilities: […]

Arm Cortex-M52 aims to bring AI to small, low-cost IoT devices

Arm Cortex-M52

Arm Cortex-M52 is a new microcontroller core featuring Arm Helium technology and designed to bring AI capabilities to smaller and lower-cost IoT devices than what is already possible with SoCs based on the Arm Cortex-M55 core. Arm Cortex-M52 key features and specifications: Architecture – Armv8.1-M Bus interfaces AMBA 5 AXI 32-bit or AMBA 5 AHB 32-bit Main system bus AMBA 5 AHB 32-bit Peripheral bus AMBA 5 AHB 32-bit TCM Access bus (subordinate port) Pipeline – 4-stage pipeline Security Arm TrustZone technology (optional), with optional Security Attribution Unit (SAU) of up to 8 regions. Stack limit checking. Optional support for PACBTI extension (Pointer Authentication, Branch Target Identification) Memory Protection – Optional Memory Protection Units (MPU) for process isolation with up to 16 MPU regions and a background region – if TrustZone is implemented, there can be a Secure and a Non-secure MPUs. DSP extension – 32-bit DSP/SIMD extension Optional single-beat […]

Renesas RA8M1 is the world’s first Arm Cortex-M85 microcontroller

Renesas RA8M1 Arm Cortex-M85 microcontroller

Renesas RA8M1 is an up to 480 MHz Arm Cortex-M85 microcontroller with Arm Helium technology to improve DSP and machine learning performance on Cortex-M microcontrollers, and delivering up to 6.39 CoreMark/MHz performance using EEMBC’s CoreMark, or over 3,000 CoreMark at 480 MHz. The Arm Cortex-M85 core was first unveiled in April 2022 as a faster Cortex-M7 alternative and new Arm Helium technology that delivers machine learning performance similar to Cortex-M55 application processor. We had some teases about the upcoming Renesas Cortex-M85 in the last year, but the world’s first Cortex-M85 microcontroller is finally here. Renesas RA8M1 key features and specifications: MCU core – Arm Cortex-M85 clocked at 240 to 480 MHz with Helium MVE (M-Profile Vector Extension) with 32KB I/D Caches and 12KB Data Flash Memory & Storage 1MB SRAM with TCM 1MB to 2MB Flash memory External memory interfaces (CS/SDRAM) Camera – 16-bit Capture Engine Unit (CEU) interface Communication […]