STM32H7 is the high-performance family of STMicroelectronics Arm Cortex-M7 microcontroller. So far all STM32H7 MCUs had a single core, but the company has now added dual-core devices (STM32H74x/75x) comprised of an Arm Cortex-M7 core clocked at up to 480 MHz and a Cortex-M4 core clocked at 240MHz.
In some way, this part is the little brother of STM32MP1 Arm Cortex-A7 + Cortex-M4 processor, as the new dual-core MCU also targets current products upgrade with the Arm Cortex-M4 core running legacy code, and the more powerful Cortex-M7 aimed at new features such as more sophisticated graphical interfaces, or offloading intensive workloads such as neural networks, checksums, DSP filtering, or audio codecs.
Highlights of the new STM32H7 dual-core microcontrollers:
- Cores
- Arm Cortex-M7 at 480 MHz
- Arm Cortex-M4 at 240 MHz
- 3224 CoreMark / 1327 DMIPS
- Up to 2MByte Flash and 1Mbyte SRAM on-chip
- Dual-Bank Flash for seamless firmware updates
- “New” features
- MIPI display serial interface (MIPI-DSI) in STM32H7x7
- 3x 16-bit ADC up to 3.6 Msps*
- FD-CAN*
- Ethernet Controller*
- Security – Root Security Services (RSS) in STM32H75x microcontrollers with hardware crypto for secure firmware flashing in order to prevent hacking and protect IP
- Switched-Mode Power Supply (SMPS)
- Temperature Range – Up to 85°C (standard), 125°C (industrial), or 140°C at 300 MHz
* Those were also announced in STM32H750 last year.
It should be noted that both Arm cores exist in an independent power domain to optimize energy consumption, which means they can be turned on and off independently, and the system can boot on either core.
STM32H745/STM32H755 and STM32H747/STM32H757 are the company’s first dual-core models with STM32H75x adding hardware crypto and hash.
STMicro also provides two development boards for their STM32H7x7 dual-core MCUs: STM32H747I-EVAL and STM32H747I-DISCO boards. None of which integrates a crypto core, but alternative versions are planned for STM32H757.
STM32H747I-DISCO specifications:
- MCU – STM32H747XIH6 with 2 MB of Flash memory and 1 MB of RAM in TFBGA240 + 25 package
- System Memory – 256-Mbit SDRAM
- Storage – 2x 512-Mbit Quad-SPI NOR Flash memory, microSD card
- Display – 4” capacitive touch LCD display module with MIPI DSI interface (STM32H747I-DISCO order code only)
- Audio – SAI audio codec, ST-MEMS digital microphones, SPDIF RCA input and output, 3.5mm audio jack
- Camera – 8-bit camera I/F
- Networking – Ethernet compliant with IEEE802.3-2002
- USB – 1x micro USB OTG HS port
- Expansion
- Arduino Uno V3
- Pmod Type 2A and Type 4A
- STMod+
- Audio daughterboard
- Debugging – TAG-Connect 10-pin footprint, Arm Cortex 10-pin 1.27 mm-pitch debug connector over STDC14 footprint
- Misc – 4x color user LEDs, 1x user and reset push-button, 4-direction joystick with a selection button
STM32H747I-EVAL comes with basically the same base features as the Discovery board, but also adds extra I/Os, an on-board STLINK-V3E debugger/programmer, an RTC with a rechargeable backup battery, 3x micro USB interfaces, RS-232 serial ports, and an FDCAN compliant connection among other features.
Both boards are supported by the company’s STM32Cube MCU Package, and support a wide choice of Integrated Development Environments (IDEs) including IAR, Keil, and GCC-based IDEs.
STM32H7 dual-core microcontrollers are entering production and samples are available now with pricing starting at $8.19 for orders of 10,000 pieces. STM32H747I-DISCO sells for $97, and STM32H747I-EVAL for $318. You’ll find more details, including documentation and purchase links, on the product page and a blog post on STMicro website.
Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.
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