Nuvoton NuMicro MA35D0 is a low-cost dual-Core Arm Cortex-A35 microprocessor for industrial edge applications

The Nuvoton NuMicro MA35D0 series is a cost-effective, dual-core Arm Cortex-A35 MPU designed specifically for edge IoT applications. The specifications of this MPU are very similar to the Nuvoton MA35H0, and it looks more like a low-power low-cost version of the NuMicro MA35D1. The MPU features integrated, stacked DDR SDRAM options (128MB or 256MB) to reduce PCB complexity and BOM costs. It also offers some security options with Arm TrustZone, secure boot, cryptographic accelerators, and a True Random Number Generator, making it ideal for industrial applications.

The MPU also offers various peripherals and connectivity options including 2x Fast Ethernet (IEEE 1588 v2) interfaces, high-speed USB, SD3.0/eMMC, three CAN FD, eleven UART, and more. Additionally, the MA35D0 MPU supports touchscreens and a TFT LCD controller with resolutions up to 1280×800.

Nuvoton NuMicro MA35D0 Series specifications:

• CPU Sub-system
  •  2x Arm Cortex-A35 cores running at up to 650 MHz
  • L1 Cache – 32 Kbytes instruction & 32 Kbytes data for each core
  • L2 Cache – 512 Kbytes shared
• Memory Sub-system
  • On-chip SRAM – Up to 384 KB
  • SDRAM Controller – Supports DDR2, DDR3, DDR3L (up to 533MHz)
• Storage
  • USB (device or host)
  • SD/eMMC
  • NAND Flash
  • SPI Flash (SPI-NOR/SPI-NAND)
  • Bootloader – Pre-loaded 128KB mask ROM with all boot options above
• Display and Video Sub-system
  • TFT-LCD Interface – 24-bit, up to 1280×800 @ 60fps, various formats supported
  • 2D Graphics Engine – Blits, rotation, filtering, alpha blending, etc.
  • Image Decoder – JPEG
  • Post Processing – Scaling, color conversion, rotation, and more
• Networking – 2x 10/100Mbps Ethernet MAC
• USB
  • 1x USB 2.0 high-speed host/device (transceiver included)
  • 1x high-speed host only
• Other peripherals
  • Peripheral DMA (PDMA)
  • 3x I2C (master/slave)
  • 2x Secure Digital Host Controllers
  • 3x CAN Bus controllers, compliant with CAN 2.0 and ISO 11898-1:2015
  • SPI with Master/slave, up to 100 MHz
  • 11x low-power UART (up to 9.5MHz)
  • PWM, Timers, etc… – EPWM, 32-bit timers, Smart Card interface, Keypad Interface, GPIO
  • Generic Interrupt Controller (GIC) For interrupt management
• Security Sub-system
  • ARM TrustZone
  • Secure Boot
  • Trusted Secure Island (TSI) – Run-Time Integrity Checker (RTIC)
  • Cryptographic – AES, SHA, ECC, RSA, TRNG, PRNG
  • Keystore – Secure storage, key management, cryptography
  • OTP Controller – 8k bits Secure One-Time Programmable memory
  • Tamper Detection Pins
  • CMOS Sensor Interface
• Additional Features
  • NAND Flash Controller
  • ADC – 12-bit, 8-channel SAR ADC
  • External Bus Interface (EBI) – Up to 3 memory banks
  • Real-Time Clock(RTC)
  • Built-in temperature sensor with ±5°C accuracy
  • Hardware Semaphore
• Dimensions – 24 mm x 24 mm
• Package – LQFP-EP 216-Pin Package
• Temperature range – -40 ~ 85°C (Industrial-grade)

The company has introduced two MPUs with SKU MA35D03F764C and MA35D03F864C the only difference between the MPUs is that the F764C has 128 MB of DDR memory, while the F864C has 256 MB. Other than that, they have 154 GPIOs, 40-bit PDM NAND Flash, watchdog timers, video codecs, and a JPEG decoder.

Nuvoton offers software and hardware tools to shorten the development time. With support for graphics libraries such as SEGGER emWin, Qt, and LVGL, developers can effortlessly create graphical user interfaces (GUIs). The company also shows that it supports Yocto and Buildroot build systems for Linux, secure firmware, and many other resources that can be found on the products page resources section. The company also has its own GitHub repo where some example code and other documentation can be found.

The company also offers NuMaker-IoT-MA35D0-A1 development board based on the MA35D03F864C MPU. This is great for those who want to get started with this board easily. The company offers Schematic, PCB, Gerber File & BOM for the dev board.

NuMaker-IoT-MA35D0-A1 Dev Board Specifications:

• Main Chip – High-performance MA35D0 MPU with dual Cortex-A35 cores (up to 650MHz)
• Memory – 256MB of DDR3L RAM in MCP (Multi-Chip Package) for streamlined design
• Storage
  • 512MB onboard Quad SPI NAND Flash
  • 1GB on-board NAND Flash
  • SD2.0 compatible MicroSD slot
  • SD3.0 compatible Standard SD card slot
• USB 
  • 1x USB Type-C for 5V power input
  • 1x High-Speed USB Host/Device
  • 1x High-speed USB Host.
• Ethernet – 2x Gigabit Ethernet ports (RMII) with PHYs, transformers, and RJ45 connectors.
• Audio – Audio codec with mic input and speaker output.
• Debugging
  • USB Virtual COM – UART debug port accessible as a USB virtual COM port.
  • SWJ Connector – JTAG + SWD debug port.
• Boot Options – DIP Switch to Select the boot source at power-on.
• User Interface
  • Buttons – 3x user buttons
  • LEDs – 3x user LEDs
  • ADC – 8-channel ADC header
• Misc
  • RS232/RS485 – 2x RS232/RS485 transceivers with DB9/header
  • CAN FD – 3x CAN FD transceivers with headers
  • RTC Battery – Header for battery backup of the Real-Time Clock.
• Dimension – 143 mm x 106 mm

At the time of writing the company is not selling the MPUs directly but the NuMaker-IoT-MA35D0-A1 dev board is available for purchase for $119.00 on Nuvoton Direct. More information about the IC can be found on the product page or the press release.

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