STEVAL-VOICE-UI Amazon qualified Alexa Smart Home evaluation kit is based on STM32H7 MCU

STEVAL-VOICE-UI

We’ve already covered plenty of Amazon-qualified development kits working with Alexa Voice Services. But here’s another one with STEVAL-VOICE-UI evaluation kit making it to the list of Smart Home Dev Kits, which Amazon describes as “reference designs for creating smart home products such as light switches, thermostats, or Wi-Fi routers”. STEVAL-VOICE-UI voice user interface (VUI) evaluation kit features an STMicro STM32H7 Arm Cortex-M7 microcontroller with 2 MB embedded flash, 1 MB embedded SRAM, 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi, and a microphone array with three MEMS microphones, as well as a loudspeaker, and some buttons and LEDs. STEVAL-VOICE-UI key features specifications: Microcontroller – STMicro STM32H753VIT6E Cortex-M7 MCU @ up to 550 MHz with 2 MB flash, 1 MB SRAM Connectivity – 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi subsystem (Murata 1DX module) coupled to 2MB NOR flash (ISSI IS25LP016D) Audio 3x MP23DB01HP MEMS microphones with 36 and 30 mm spacing FDA903D class D digital input automotive audio […]

New STMicro STM32G4 MCUs target cost-effective motor control systems with up to 512KB flash

NUCLEO-G491RE board

STMicro introduced the STM32G4 family of mixed-signal microcontrollers in May 2019 for e-mobility (e.g. e-bikes), digital power supplies, advanced motor controls, lighting, and building-automation products. The Arm Cortex-M4 based microcontrollers clock up to 170 MHz, and include new hardware mathematical accelerators to boost processing of applications using Cordic (Coordinate Rotation Digital Computer) and Filtering functions to support increased performance and energy efficiency. This enables faster and more efficient calculations for energy-saving motor controls and frees up the core to receive more sensor data and control additional user functions. The STM32G4 Series of mixed-signal microcontrollers have three lines of products: The STM32G4x1 Access line – general-purpose microcontrollers with an entry-level set of analog peripherals The STM32G4x3 Performance line – general-purpose microcontrollers with the maximum number of analog peripherals The STM32G4x4 Hi-resolution line with high-resolution timer and complex waveform builder plus event handler (HRTIM) for digital power conversion, such as digital switched-mode […]

STMicro unveils VL53L5 multi-zone ToF ranging sensor

We’ve previously covered or even tested STMicro Time-of-Flight (ToF) ranging sensors with devices like VL53L0X with up to 2-meter range or VL53L1X extending the range to a maximum of 4 meters to measure the distance to one object aka region of interest (ROI). Those are used in various applications including the autofocus function in smartphones for example. The company has now introduced a new model with VL53L5 ToF laser-ranging sensor boasting increased camera Field-of-View coverage and 64-zone spatial resolution to enable new features such as touch-to-focus, multiple-target identification, flash dimming, or video tracking assistance. VL53L5 highlights: 940 nm invisible Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Laser (VCSEL) and integrated analog driver 61° diagonal square system field of view (FoV) using diffractive optical elements (DOE) on both transmitter and receiver Receiving array of single-photon avalanche diodes (SPADs) Parallel multi-zone output – Either 4×4 (16 zones @ 60 fps) or 8×8 (64 zones @ […]

STMicro launches cheaper STM32WB30 and STM32WB35 Bluetooth LE & Zigbee MCUs

STM32WB30 STM32WB35

STMicro introduced the first wireless STM32 microcontrollers in 2018 with STM32WB Cortex-M4/M0+ MCU family equipped with Bluetooth 5.0 and 802.15.4 radios, and they followed earlier this year with STM32WL Cortex-M LoRa SoC. The company has not just announced yet another wireless STM32 family but instead added the more affordable STM32WB35 and STM32WB30 chips that can be obtained for under $2 in quantities. The new STM32WB microcontroller enabled a low BOM cost thanks to their memory configuration. Specifically, STM32W30 comes with 256KB flash while STM32W35 features 512 KB flash, and both offer 96 KB of RAM. This compares to STM32WB55 will up to 1MB flash and 256KB of RAM. Apart from the lower memory and flash capacity, the new wireless MCUs have basically the same features as other members of the STM32WB family with 16-bit ADC, quad-SPI interface (STM32WB35 only), as well as Bluetooth Low Energy 5.0, Zigbee 3.0, and OpenThread […]

New STM32H7 Cortex-M7 MCUs Clock at 550 MHz, Feature Octal SPI Flash and Ethernet Interfaces

STM32H7 Family Matrix with 550MHz Cortex-M7 MCU

STMicro launched STM32H7 single-core Cortex-M7 microcontroller family a while ago, followed by some dual-core Cortex-M7/M4 models, with most clocked up to 480 MHz. The company has now announced five faster parts clocked at up to 550 MHz with STM32H723, STM32H733, STM32H725, STM32H735, and STM32H730 which STMicro claims is “the fastest core speed in the market among MCUs that integrate Flash storage on-chip to run deeply embedded applications”. The embedded flash storage is important, as you may now NXP i.MX RT1170 Cortex-M7/M4 crossover processor can reach up to 1 GHz but does not include flash storage. Key differences in STM32H7 550 Mhz MCUs We’ve highlighted the five new microcontrollers in the table above, and beside the higher 550 MHz frequency delivering 2778 CoreMark and 1177 DMIPS, we can see those are the only parts that support both OctoSPI flash and Ethernet, and all five parts are designed for HMI applications with […]

STMicroelectronics Introduces Zigbee 3.0 to the STM32WB55 microcontrollers

STMicroelectronics has added Zigbee 3.0 support to its STM32WB55 wireless microcontroller family using the Zigbee PRO protocol stack. The STM32 Wireless MCU (STM32WB55) was launched last year with a dual-core Arm Cortex-M4 CPU and Cortex M0+ core, as well as  Bluetooth 5 and 802.15.4 radios. STMicro is hoping to expand the applications of the STM32WB into areas like home automation as Zigbee 3.0 is making brands choose Zigbee for their smart-home connectivity solution, smart-lighting, smart-building, mesh IoT connectivity, and many more. The STM32WB55 microcontrollers already provide support for Thread and Bluetooth 5.0 and the inclusion of the Zigbee connectivity will take this to the next level. The STM32WB55 Zigbee 3.0 software includes support for the Exegin Zigbee PRO protocol stack which is available for free. To ease development and deployment, STM32WB Zigbee solution supports 46 Zigbee 3.0 clusters and a further 21 clusters support legacy products and with the Zigbee 3.0 […]

MWC 2020 Cancelled, Several Companies Withdraw from Embedded World 2020 due to COVID-19

MWC 2020 Canceled

We’ve already covered the impact of the coronavirus on shipping and manufacturing from China, and it now looks like it may take longer than expected before things go back to normal. The WHO has now an official name for the disease: COVID-19 (COrona VIrus Disease 2019), and the impacts of the virus go far beyond China, and two large events usually taking place in February will either be canceled or scaled back. After several companies decided to pull out of the event, GSMA decided to completely cancel Mobile World Congress 2020 (aka MWC 2020): Since the first edition of Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in 2006, the GSMA has convened the industry, governments, ministers, policymakers, operators and industry leaders across the broader ecosystem. With due regard to the safe and healthy environment in Barcelona and the host country today, the GSMA has cancelled MWC Barcelona 2020 because the global concern […]

STMicroelectronics Introduces Affordable LoRa Development Packs For All User Types

STMicroelectronics has recently announced the launch of a new set of LoRa Development packs, which are not only affordable, but they are aiming to a large pool of users from big organizations, small companies, hackers, engineers, students, and hobbyists. The ready-to-use development packs are aimed for applications bent on leveraging LoRa ’s long-range, low-power wireless IoT connectivity for tracking, positioning, metering, and many related applications. STMicroelectronics is releasing the P-NUCLEO-LRWAN2 pack and P-NUCLEO-LRWAN3 pack. Both packs provide a complete LoRaWAN development kit, and they include gateways, end-nodes, and ST tools, which are all based on the STM32 Nucleo evaluation boards. The LoRa gateway on both packs is based on the STM32 Nucleo-144 development board, NUCLEO-F746ZG. The STM32 Nucleo-144 development board with STM32F746ZG MCU supports Arduino, ST Zio, and Morpho connectivity. The Gateway header pins are exposed out to facilitate more development, and they support interfacing with LoRaWAN network-server providers LORIOT, Actility, myDevices Cayenne for LoRa […]