Industrial systems, vehicles and robots are beginning to share more computing requirements. Can a common microcontroller architecture help developers carry designs across these sectors?
STMicroelectronics has announced its STM32 unified microcontroller platform, which will allow developers to easily reuse software, IP and architectures across industrial, automotive and robotics applications. The platform’s aim is to reduce duplication and help speed up time-to-market of embedded systems for companies.
As these applications begin to overlap, for example offering real-time control, functional safety, secure systems, connectivity and edge A.I, the benefit of a common platform means software and IP can easily be reused. Microcontrollers can be chosen based on the performance, qualifications and lifecycle of the design.
This is based around Arm Cortex-M cores, with everything using a common architecture. It comes with an ecosystem of STM32Cube tools and the wider Arm ecosystem, with a manufacturing base built around 40nm Flash, 18nm fully depleted silicon on insulator (FD-SOI) and embedded phase change memory. eNVM technologies are provided by TSMC.
An important feature of this is the STM32A series. These extend the platform into automotive and safety critical applications. Three microcontrollers are now sampling to customers, with wider release in 2027.
The STM32A4 offers entry level automotive local control nodes and safety applications. The STM32A5 covers mid range safety critical applications in industrial automation, robotics and energy. The STM32A9 is designed for safety critical multi domain control applications requiring real-time, low latency, ethernet and deterministic communication.
This work has been developed alongside Arm to further develop the Cortex-M platform for physical AI. Embedded processors allow machines to sense and control the physical world.
For the official announcement, click here.
