Page 56 - EE Times Europe Magazine – June 2024

56 EE|Times EUROPE

THE INDUSTRY
Three MCU Innovations at Embedded World 2024

By Robert Huntley

mbedded world, now in its 22nd year, is the main event for the The AVR DU family incorporates Microchip’s
European embedded community, but it also has global reach. established program and debug interface
This year’s conference drew 1,100 exhibitors from almost disable security feature, allowing developers
E50 countries and 32,000 visitors from roughly 80 countries, to strengthen the device’s defense capabilities
underscoring “the significance of embedded world as the key meeting against malicious attacks. When enabled, the
place for the embedded community,” as the event’s director,” Benedikt programming interface blocks unauthorized
Weyerer, said in his comments at the show’s conclusion. attempts to change or erase the firmware.
Microcontrollers continue to be the bedrock of the embedded indus- Svendsli said the MCU’s six-channel core
try, providing the essential building blocks for any design. EE Times independent peripheral (CIP) event system
Europe spoke with three MCU companies that made announcements at Microchip’s Odd “provides a deterministic response without
embedded world 2024. Jostein Svendsli using the core and interrupt service routines,”
adding that the available functions include
LOW-LATENCY BLUETOOTH CHANNEL SOUNDING DRIVES three 16-bit timer/counters; an analog comparator; a 10-bit, 170-ksps
RANGING APPLICATIONS A/D converter; and up to 25 digital I/O pins. “The CIP blocks provide a
Sujata Neidig, marketing director for wireless connectivity at NXP flexible and configurable set of functions that require little or no code,
Semiconductors (Eindhoven, Netherlands), spoke with EE Times consume minimal power and require less RAM and flash than imple-
Europe about the launch of its MCX W series of wireless MCUs. Adding menting them in software,” he said.
to the recently announced MCX A and MCX N series devices, the mul-
tiprotocol MCX W is claimed to be the first wireless MCU to support FOCUSING ON MATTER
Bluetooth Channel Sounding. Matt Maupin, senior product marketing manager for Bluetooth and
“Bluetooth Channel Sounding is available on the MCX W71x family 802.15.4 technologies at Silicon Labs (Austin, Texas), told EE Times
and offers a more accurate ranging capability, and it is designed for Europe that the company’s low-power xG26 series of SoCs and MCUs
secure access, digital key and proximity services,” Neidig said. “With is focused on meeting the increasing market demand for Matter-based
Bluetooth Channel Sounding, the MCX W can connectivity. “Our new xG26 family of multiprotocol 2.4-GHz wireless
achieve ±0.5 m accuracy, utilizing time-of- SoCs and microcontrollers targets a broad range of IoT applications,
flight and round-trip phase ranging modes from home automation and security to industrial IoT, smart cities/
and a fast response time.” A dedicated on-chip buildings and commercial use cases,” Maupin said.
localization compute engine accelerator keeps “We’re all-in on Matter, an evolving standard that is only 18 months
latency to less than 10 ms. old, so with this new series, we’re meeting the demand for more over-
The MCX W features a dedicated Arm head of resources, anticipating new features
Cortex-M3-based, 2.4-GHz 802.15.4 radio and long-life–cycle product use cases,” he said.
subsystem complete with a +10-dBm power “As the standard evolves, developers might be
NXP’s amplifier and a low-noise amplifier, free- concerned that their devices will be unable to
Sujata Neidig ing the primary Arm Cortex-M33 core from accommodate new product features and security
running wireless stacks. It is over-the-air updates.”
upgradable to support future wireless standards, performance fea- The xG26 series comprises the multiprotocol
tures and security safeguards. Supported protocols include Matter, MG26 SoC, the BLE BG26 SoC and the PG26
Zigbee, Bluetooth and Thread. The device also supports Bluetooth MCU. “Compared to the xG24 family, for the
Low Energy (BLE) 5.3 high-speed, long-range and advertising exten- xG26, we’ve doubled the amount of flash and Silicon Labs’
sions. Wi-Fi and BLE coexistence are built-in to achieve a robust RAM,” Maupin said. “The increased memory Matt Maupin
dual PAN capability. helps developers future-proof their devices,
Security is an omnipresent requirement in any embedded design, providing more firmware headroom.”
and the MCX W series integrates NXP’s Edgelock secure enclave fea- Silicon Labs also doubled the number of general-purpose I/O
tures across the range. pins, he said. “Developers now have access to up to 64 GPIO pins,
providing the ability to interface to more peripherals [and thereby]
NEXT-GENERATION 8-BIT MCU INTEGRATES USB POWER significantly easing system integration challenges. The devices offer
DELIVERY a higher-performance compute, with the tri-core device featuring a
Microchip (Chandler, Arizona) launched its latest 8-bit USB MCU 78-MHz Arm-Cortex-M33 application code and dedicated cores for the
family at the show. “The AVR DU family of 8-bit microcontrollers is the radio and security subsystems. Also, an integrated AI/ML accelerator
latest AVR-based microcontroller to integrate USB connectivity and capable of 8× faster algorithm processing and using as little as a sixth
now features a higher power delivery capability than previous devices. of the power is available to offload compute-intensive tasks from the
It’s the sixth 8-bit MCU we’ve introduced in the last 12 months,” Odd application core.”
Jostein Svendsli, Microchip’s business development manager for 8-bit The MG26 supports Matter over Thread as well as Zigbee, Thread,
MCUs, told EE Times Europe. BLE 5.3 and Bluetooth Mesh. The MG26 series offers up to 3,200 kB of
“The series delivers up to 15 W—a capability not found in simi- flash and 512 kB of RAM. The radio subsystem of the BG26 and MG26
lar-class MCUs—making it suitable for USB-C charging with currents provides up to +19.5-dBm transmit power and has a receive sensitivity
up to 3 A at 5 V [and therefore] making it an excellent choice for prod- of –97.6 dBm for BLE 1-Mbps communications. Silicon Lab’s Secure
ucts like portable power banks and rechargeable toys,” Svendsli said. Vault functionality is incorporated across the xG26 family. ■

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