Software packs, tools and eval board accelerate STM32U5 development
Extensions to STMicroelectronics’ STM32 ecosystem accelerate development with the STM32U5 extreme low power microcontrollers. The STM32Cube software packs, tools and evaluation boards are available now and are in stock at authorised distributors.
The STM32U575 and STM32U585 micrcontrollers combine security and power-saving with increased performance and energy efficiency via the Arm Cortex-M33 core, explains STMicroelectronics. The microcontrollers have up to 2Mbyte of flash memory on-chip, making them suitable for use in activity trackers and smart watches, as well as smart home equipment, utility meters, equipment for industrial sensing and signalling, mobile point of sale (PoS) terminals, insulin pumps, and glucose meters.
These are the first STM32 microcontrollers to leverage 40nm process technology, which according to ST results in advanced feature integration, memory density, dynamic power consumption, and standby power compared to alternative products currently available. There are new power saving features including a low power background autonomous mode (LPBAM) that lets direct memory access (DMA) and key peripherals operate without CPU intervention. There is also an updated ST ART Accelerator, which brings the ability to turn off unused microcontroller memory. There is also a selectable DC/DC converter and low dropout (LDO) regulator combination. Dynamic power is less than 19 microA / MHz.
The STM32CubeU5 enablement ecosystem for STM32U5 is available on the ST.com and GitHub websites, where there are more than 200 project examples and software to help exercise microcontroller features like LPBAM, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth Low Energy. Support for OpenBootloader eases implementation of custom bootloader code, advises ST and Azure RTOS with ThreadX RTOS, FreeRTOS and CMSIS OS wrappers ease industry certifications. The X-Cube-STL self test library and functional safety documentation support safety-critical application development and accelerate IEC61508 SIL certification of STM32U5-based products.
There are also software packages that simplify cybersecurity and help comply with industry best practices. These include reference code for secure boot and secure firmware update (SBSFU) and a trusted firmware (TF-M) example that leverages Arm’s TrustZone isolation within the core to implement secure services for PSA level 3 and SESIP level 3 certifications.
ST’s industry-certified X-Cube-CrytoLib cryptographic library is updated with simplified API and extra cryptographic algorithms, and also includes support for secure firmware install (SFI) protects downloading of customer firmware. Software works with the microcontroller’s hardware security features, which include strengthened protection against side-channel attacks as well as internal monitoring to erase secret data, which meets payment card industry requirements for PoS applications.
Hardware kits, including the Discovery kit for IoT node (B-U585I-IOT02A) which has MEMS context sensing and Bluetooth Low Energy and Wi-Fi modules. There is also the Nucleo-U575ZI-Q Nucleo 144 board for prototyping and the STM32U575I-EV evaluation kit.
