embedded world 2024 Best in Show Nominees: Microcontrollers, Microprocessors, & IP

April 01, 2024

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The Embedded Computing Design editorial staff is pleased to present this year’s embedded world Best-in-Show nominees in the Microcontrollers, Microprocessors, & IP category:

Ambiq - Apollo510 MCU

Ambiq's Apollo510 MCU is the first offering from the Apollo5 family of low-power semiconductors that's purpose-built to enable the next generation of AI on endpoint devices. The Apollo510 builds upon Ambiq's revolutionary Subthreshold Power Optimization Technology (SPOT) platform to perform AI with smoother performance and even better energy consumption than the already best-in-class Apollo4 SoC family.  This incredible reduction in power consumption allows endpoint device manufacturers to dramatically expand their devices' capabilities, reducing dependence on the cloud. They can add intensive and complex features such as sophisticated speech, vision, health, and industrial AI models on battery-powered devices everywhere.

The Apollo510 marks a new age of ubiquitous and meaningful AI that brings instant value to manufacturers and consumers. With its nearly 300x more AI throughput per joule, the Apollo510 is capable of running the vast majority of today's endpoint AI calculations, including low-power sensor monitoring, always-on voice commands, telco-quality audio enhancement, and more – all without the need for a dedicated NPU. AI is becoming a part of our daily lives. It's in our wearables, healthcare, homes, work, where we get our food and more. AI requires significant power that the Apollo510 is positioned to handle and improve upon.

For more information, visit: https://ambiq.com/apollo510

 

GigaDevice- GD32F527 ARM Cortex-M33 32-bit MCU

The GD32F527xx device incorporates an Arm® Cortex®-M33 processor operating at 200 MHz with Flash safety & security protection to prevent illegal code/data access. It provides up to 7680 KB of on-chip Flash memory, 512KB SRAM (SRAM0, 1, 2), 512KB SRAM, and 64KB TCM memory. Both FLASH and SRAM have ECC capabilities. The device offers: 12-bit 2.6 MSPS ADCs, general and advanced 16-bit timers, and 32-bit general timers, it includes communication interfaces: SPIs, I2Cs, USARTs and UARTs, I2Ss, CAN-FDs, USBHS, USBFS, an ENET, an SDIO, a digital camera interface, EXMC interface with SDRAM support, TFT-LCD Interface, Image Processing Accelerator, and Serial Audio Interface.

The GD32F527 is the latest forward-looking product from GigaDevice incorporating an Arm® Cortex®-M33 32-bit processor core. It has key features that address safety, security, OTA, and system integration. Safety-critical designs targeting IEC61508 SIL2 applications including hardware safety, STL, FMEDA, and a Safety Manual. System security safeguards intellectual property protection, private data protection, and device protection from external attacks. The ability for instant secure 2MB OTA updates using a unique swappable dual bank flash memory architecture that includes ECC. System integration is possible via the 8MB of on-chip Flash memory for code and data storage, and an Image Processing Accelerator.

For more information, visit: https://www.gd32mcu.com/en/download/5?kw=GD32F5

 

Lattice Semiconductor - Lattice Avant™ FPGA platform

The Lattice Avant™ FPGA platform is purpose-built to bring Lattice’s power-efficient architecture, small size, and performance leadership to mid-range FPGAs. Lattice Avant offers best-in-class power efficiency, advanced connectivity, and optimized compute that enable Lattice to address an expanded set of customer applications across the Communications, Computing, Industrial, and Automotive markets. It enables system and application developers to address important industry challenges around increases in technology connectedness and intelligence, the accelerating demand for innovation, and the growing need for efficiency and flexibility in system and application design.

As the low-power programmable leader, our mission is to solve customer problems across the network, from the Edge to the Cloud. The Lattice Avant FPGA platform redefines the mid-range FPGA market with its 16nm FinFET architecture, new standards in low power consumption, and industry-leading small form factor. Boasting modernized features, up to 28 SERDES channels operating up to 25 Gbps, hardened PCI Express, and external memory PHY interfaces, it’s perfectly suited for demanding AI/ML and computer vision applications and offers best-in-class reliability and advanced security features including bitstream encryption and authentication, and quantum-safe cryptography.

For more information, visit: https://www.latticesemi.com/avantplatform

 

Infineon - PSoC™ 4000T

PSoC™ 4000T is a specialized microcontroller targeting a wide range of HMI applications. It is a best-in-class low-power capacitive sensing solution with unsurpassed signal-to-noise ratio, liquid tolerance, and multi-sense capabilities coupled with industry-leading reliability and robustness. PSoC™ 4000T microcontrollers expand the PSoC™ 4 product family of Arm® Cortex®-M0+ based microcontrollers and feature Infineon’s 5th Generation high-performance CAPSENSE™ capacitive sensing technology. Infineon’s 5th Generation CAPSENSE™ technology provides 10x higher SNR (signal-to-noise ratio) performance with 10x lower consumption than previous generations of CAPSENSE™. PSoC™ 4000T enables a variety of low-power applications including wearable, hearable, and smart-connected IoT devices.

PSoC™ 4000T can be used for a simple application like capacitive proximity, or it can be used in an application with challenging stack-up or environments that are not traditionally well suited for capacitive sensing. Designers can build different end applications through available middleware using PSoC™ 4000T, which reduces the requalification efforts for customers from project to project. These different applications supported through middleware are capacitive proximity, touch button, capacitive slider, capacitive trackpad, liquid level sensing, force sensing through inductive sensing, touch over metal, and many more.

For more information, visit: https://www.infineon.com/cms/en/product/microcontroller/32-bit-psoc-arm-cortex-microcontroller/psoc-4-32-bit-arm-cortex-m0-mcu/psoc-4000/psoc-4000t/

 

NXP Semiconductors - S32N55 Vehicle Super-Integration Processor

The S32N55 processor is the first NXP S32N family member, offering the automotive industry’s real-time device with 16 split-lock Arm® Cortex®-R52 real-time processors running at 1.2 GHz supporting ASIL D functional safety applications. It provides safe integration of core vehicle functions with mixed-criticality in software-defined vehicle (SDV) central vehicle controllers. It can consolidate cross-vehicle functions like vehicle propulsion and dynamics, body and comfort, and vehicle networking into a single device. It includes an integrated TSN 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet switch, a CAN hub with 24x CAN FD interfaces, and a hardware security engine (HSE), eliminating the need for external devices.

The S32N55 offers an unrivaled level of safe, real-time performance to give automakers the ability to consolidate dozens of vehicle ECUs into a single device for the first time. Groundbreaking hardware isolation and virtualization technology provide isolation execution environments for freedom from interference that support mixed-criticality applications. Automakers can reduce associated hardware costs by up to 40%, which not only saves money but is also huge for sustainability through a reduction in materials and the overall vehicle weight which is beneficial for extended range. It also reduces manufacturing time to provide further cost savings.

For more information, visit: https://www.nxp.com/products/processors-and-microcontrollers

 

Synaptics - SL-Series

The Synaptics SL-Series of multi-core embedded processors are highly integrated AI-native Linux® and Android™ SoCs optimized for multi-modal consumer, enterprise, and industrial IoT workloads with hardware accelerators for edge inferencing, security, video, graphics, and audio. The SL-Series comprises the SL1680, which is based on the Arm® Cortex®-A73, and includes a 7.9-TOPS NPU, a feature-rich GPU, and multimedia accelerators; the SL1640, based on the Cortex-A55, and includes a 1.6 TOPS NPU, an Imagination GE9920 GPU, UHD video encode/decode, and a DSP; and the SL1620, based on the Cortex-A55 CPU and includes an Imagination BXE-2-32 GPU, dual display, and advanced audio algorithms.

The SL-Series multi-core embedded IoT processors herald the next stage in edge inferencing by shifting from making AI work to working with AI. The series comprises a scalable heterogeneous processor mix architected to accelerate the development of optimized solutions for edge AI IoT workloads within a unified software environment. Part of Synaptics Astra, the AI-native SL-Series is supported by the Astra MachinaTM Foundation Series toolkit and by Synaptics’ best-in-class wireless connectivity portfolio, allowing developers at any stage of their AI journey—from beginner to expert—to quickly deploy applications at the required power, performance, reliability, security, and cost points.

For more information, visit: https://www.synaptics.com/products/embedded-processors

 

Think Silicon/AMAT- NEOX® | GA100

NEOX® | GA100 is the industry’s first RISC-V GPGPU solution for the MCU market, offering a unique combination of performing graphics (3D/VG/2.5D) and ΑΙ on the same IP. NEOX® | GA100 is the most energy-efficient 3D graphics solution for the wearables & AIoT market with the entire 3D, VG & 2.5D API requiring less than 150kB. NEOX® | GA100 enables AI without additional silicon cost. Its versatility enables graphics & AI on a variety of target systems, from low-power bare-metal systems to high-performance, Linux-based systems.

• Industry's first RISC-V GPGPU for MCUs • Graphics and ΑΙ in one IP • Ultra-low power, tiny silicon area & memory requirements • Highly configurable, turnkey accelerator with custom graphics and AI instruction • 3D graphics rendering on a variety of target systems, from low-power bare-metal systems to high-performance, Linux based systems. • Delivered with an AI SDK performing offline graph optimization and AI inference based on TensorFlow Lite for MCU.  The SDK is also integrated into the Edge Impulse platform, enabling ML developers to target NEOX® | GA100 for edge applications on wearable and AIoT devices. • Ultimate choice for resource-constrained and edge AIoT devices such as wearables, smart homes, mobility, and industrial HMI/IoT.

For more information, visit: https://www.think-silicon.com/neox

 

Imagination Technologies - Imagination APXM-6200 CPU

The Imagination APXM-6200 CPU is a cutting-edge 64-bit RISC-V processor designed for both consumer and industrial applications, offering market-leading performance density. Featuring an 11-stage dual-issue pipeline, it incorporates Vector and Vector Crypto extensions along with multi-core support, ensuring exceptional performance across a spectrum of use cases, including AI workloads. With fast data coupling capabilities for seamless integration with accelerators such as GPUs and AI accelerators, the CPU is poised to support diverse workloads. Additionally, it boasts extensive software libraries, development tools, Rich OS support, and compatibility with industry-standard security systems

The Imagination APXM-6200 CPU represents a paradigm shift for the RISC-V landscape, catering to a broadening user base. With a focus on innovative design and engineering excellence, Imagination delivers a market-leading CPU that excels in performance, efficiency, and power consumption. By providing a comprehensive solution encompassing robust ecosystem support and trusted security features, Imagination ensures customer satisfaction and drives the proliferation of RISC-V cores across a variety of industries. Positioned for success in Smart Home, Industrial, and Wearable sectors, the APXM-6200 is poised to spearhead the transition from billions of RISC-V cores total, to one that delivers billions of cores every year.

For more information, visit: https://www.imaginationtech.com/products/cpu/apxm-6200/