200 MHz Microchip dsPIC33A 32-bit digital signal controller offers double-precision FPU, high speed analog interfaces

dsPIC33A DSC

Top digital signal controller (DSC) vendor, Microchip Technology Inc., has launched the dsPIC33A series as the newest addition to its portfolio of high-performance DSCs. These digital signal controllers combine the capabilities of a digital signal processor (DSP) with the extensive peripherals of a microcontroller (MCU). The dsPIC33A series is built around a 32-bit architecture and operates at 200MHz – currently the highest clock speed for a dsPIC. The core includes a double-precision floating-point unit (DP FPU) and a DSP instruction set for numerically intensive operations in closed-loop control algorithms. The dsPIC33A architecture offers high-performance, high-precision real-time control and signal processing in various applications. The family of DSCs launching the dsPIC33A series, dsPIC33AK128MC1xx, features up to 128KB of flash memory, and an extensive set of built-in peripherals. It comes in different packages, including SSOP, VQFN, and TQFP, with pin counts ranging from 28 to 64 and sizes starting as small as […]

NXP SAF9000 and SAF9100 Automotive Audio DSP bring AI to car infotainment

NXP AI Audio Proce with SAF9xxx Audio DSPs

NXP has recently launched the SAF9xxx Automotive Audio DSP family, which currently includes SAF9000 and SAF9100 AI audio DSPs. Built around Cadence’s latest generation high-performance Tensilica HiFi 5 DSPs, these new chips not only feature AI and ML capabilities, but also include features like driver’s voice pitches and accent recognition, noise cancellation, voice recognition, emergency siren detection, and more. Additionally, the SAF9000 chip includes a software-defined radio option with up to five integrated tuners (controlled by an integrated Arm Cortex-M7 core) that covers all major global broadcast radio standards, including DAB, HD Radio, DRM, CDR, and AM/FM into a single chip solution. SAF9xxx Automotive Audio DSP specifications DSP – Tensilica HiFi 5 DSPs with dedicated neural network engines Integrated Controller – Arm Cortex-M7 core for tuner and audio control middleware Radio Features (SAF9000 only) Supports AM, FM, DAB, DAB+, DMB, HD Radio, DRM for AM, DRM for FM (DRM+), CDR […]

Rockchip RK2118G/RK2118M dual-core Star-SE Armv8-M microcontrollers target smart audio applications

Rockchip RK2118G microcontroller block diagram

Rockchip RK2118G and RK2118M smart audio microcontrollers based on a dual-core Star-SE Armv8-M processor, an NPU for smart AI audio processor, three DSPs, 1024KB SRAM, optional DDR memory in package, and a range of peripherals. I first noticed the RK2118M in slides from the Rockchip Developer Conference 2024 last March, but I did not have enough information for an article at the time. Things have now changed since I’ve just received a bunch of datasheets including the one for the RK2118G and RK2118G microcontrollers, which look identical except for the DDR interface and optional built-in 64MB RAM for the RK2118G. The datasheets have only one reference to Arm with the string “Arm-V8M” and nothing else, and Cortex is not mentioned at all. But the slide above reveals the STAR-SE core looks to be an Arm Cortex-M33 core. We also learn the top frequencies for the “STAR-M33″/”STAR-SE” core  (300MHz) and the […]

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 […]

AMD Kria K24 Zynq Ultrascale+ system-on-module targets motor control and DSP applications

AMD Kria 24

The AMD Kria K24 System-on-Module (SOM) with a custom-built Zynq UltraScale+ MPSoC and the KD240 Drives Starter Kit are designed for the development of cost-sensitive industrial and commercial edge applications. The new Kria K24 is about half the size of a credit card and uses half the power of the larger, but connector-compatible, Kria K26 SOM that was introduced in 2021 for computer vision applications when the company was still known as Xilinx. That means existing K26 carrier boards can be reused with the Kria K24 SOM without modifying the PCB, but note there’s only one 240-pin connector on the new module, plus an extra 40-pin connector. AMD Kria K24 specifications: MPSoC – Custom-built Zynq Ultrascale+ XCK24 Quad-core Arm Cortex-A53 processor  up to 1.3 GHz Dual-core Arm Cortex-R5F real-time processor up to 533 MHz Mali-400 MP2 GPU up to 600 MHz FPGA fabric with 154K logic cells AMD Deep Learning […]

Cadence Neo NPU IP scales from 8 GOPS to 80 TOPS

Cadence Neo NPU

Cadence Neo NPU (Neural Processing Unit) IP delivers 8 GOPS to 80 TOPS in single core configuration and can be scaled to multicore configuration for hundreds of TOPS. The company says the Neo NPUs deliver high AI performance and energy efficiency for optimal PPA (Power, Performance, Area) and cost points for next-generation AI SoCs for intelligent sensors, IoT, audio/vision, hearables/wearables, mobile vision/voice AI, AR/VR and ADAS. Some highlights of the new Neo NPU IP include: Scalability – Single-core solution is scalable from 8 GOPS to 80 TOPS, with further extension to hundreds of TOPS with multicore Supports 256 to 32K MACs per cycle to allow SoC architects to meet power, performance, and area (PPA) tradeoffs Works with DSPs, general-purpose microcontrollers, and application processors Support for Int4, Int8, Int16, and FP16 data types for CNN, RNN and transformer-based networks. Up to 20x higher performance than the first-generation Cadence AI IP, with […]

Sony IMX500-based smart camera works with AITRIOS software

LUCID SENSAiZ SZP123S AITRIOS camera

Raspberry Pi recently received a strategic investment from Sony (Semiconductor Solutions Corporation) in order to provide a development platform for the company’s edge AI devices leveraging the AITRIOS platform. We don’t have many details about the upcoming Raspberry Pi / Sony device, so instead, I decided to look into the AITRIOS platform, and currently, there’s a single hardware platform, LUCID Vision Labs SENSAiZ SZP123S-001 smart camera based on Sony IMX500 intelligent vision sensor, designed to work with Sony AITRIOS software. LUCID SENSAiZ Smart camera SENSAiZ SZP123S-001 specifications: Imaging  sensor – 12.33MP Sony IMX500 progressive scan CMOS sensor with rolling shutter, built-in DSP and dedicated on-chip SRAM to enable high-speed edge AI processing. Focal Length  – 4.35 mm Camera Sensor Format – 1/2.3″ Pixels (H x V) – 4,056 x 3,040 Pixel Size, H x V – 1.55 x 1.55 μm Networking – 10/100M RJ45 port Power Supply – PoE+ via […]

conga-STDA4 SMARC 2.1 module features TI TDA4VM/DRA829J Jacinto 7 processor

conga-STDA4 SMARC Module TI Jacinto 7 TDA4VM DRA829J

congatec conga-STDA4 is a SMARC Computer-on-Module (CoM) based on Texas Instruments TDA4VM or DRA829J Jacinto 7 processor with two Cortex-A72 cores, six real-time Cortex-R5 cores for functional safety, accelerated vision and AI processing capabilities, and plenty of interfaces. The first Texas Instruments-powered CoM from the company is designed for industrial mobile machinery requiring near-field analytics, such as automated guided vehicles and autonomous mobile robots, construction and agricultural machinery, as well as any industrial or medical solutions requiring energy-efficient computer vision at the edge. conga-STDA4 specifications: SoC – Texas Instruments Jacinto 7 TDA4VM/DRA829J with Dual-core Arm Cortex-A72 up to 2.0 GHz 6x Arm Cortex-R5F cores @ 1.0 GHz up to 8 MB of on-chip L3 RAM 1x C7x DSP up to 80 GFLOPs 2x C66 DSPs up to 40 GFLOPs Up to 8 TOPS MMA AI accelerator PowerVR Rogue 8XE GE8430 3D GPU with support for OpenGL ES 3.1, OpenVX, OpenCL […]

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