Don't mind me, OMG 216 MHz M7...

[Kilrah]

So, I've been writing code for MCUs for quite a while now, but maybe in the wrong industry?

I have _no idea_ what people use all that processing power for..  A 16MHz M0+ is _plenty_ fast enough for my needs (remote monitoring, headsets, smart wearables, etc).

High resolution color GUI, lots of simultaneous timing-critical and bulk I/O, a bunch of math operations, some sound processing, running a script interpreter,...

[stmdude]

High resolution color GUI, lots of simultaneous timing-critical and bulk I/O, a bunch of math operations, some sound processing, running a script interpreter,...

Yep, I know exactly what goes into one of those things.  However, these days, I wouldn't design one of those around just an MCU.
The SoCs are getting _very_ cheap these days. In quite a lot of cases, you can get a smallish MCU+SoC+DDR for less than the price of MCU+SDRAM.

In this particular use-case, I'd stuff the timing and safety-critical stuff into a small MCU (STM32F030 or low-density STM32F103).  In this case, it would be sampling of the inputs, mixing, PCM modulation and fail-safe functions.
In addition to that, I'd stuff something like an AllWinner A20 SoC + 512MB of DDR (A20 can be bought for <$5 in 1-pcs), driving the display, audio, sd-cards,  wifi, dealing with model management, etc.
In total, it would be cheaper (BOM-wise) than a F429+SDRAM for example..
( Btw, flew fixed-wing for 10+ years, and rotary for 5+. )

I think we're seeing the lines being blurred right now. MCUs are encroaching on SoCs, horse-power wise, and SoCs are encroaching on MCUs, prize-wise...

[nctnico]

High resolution color GUI, lots of simultaneous timing-critical and bulk I/O, a bunch of math operations, some sound processing, running a script interpreter,...

Yep, I know exactly what goes into one of those things.  However, these days, I wouldn't design one of those around just an MCU.
The SoCs are getting _very_ cheap these days. In quite a lot of cases, you can get a smallish MCU+SoC+DDR for less than the price of MCU+SDRAM.

In this particular use-case, I'd stuff the timing and safety-critical stuff into a small MCU (STM32F030 or low-density STM32F103).  In this case, it would be sampling of the inputs, mixing, PCM modulation and fail-safe functions.
In addition to that, I'd stuff something like an AllWinner A20 SoC + 512MB of DDR (A20 can be bought for <$5 in 1-pcs), driving the display, audio, sd-cards,  wifi, dealing with model management, etc.
In total, it would be cheaper (BOM-wise) than a F429+SDRAM for example..
( Btw, flew fixed-wing for 10+ years, and rotary for 5+. )

You are forgetting the 300 to 500 hours of work to get a SoC into a production ready design (both software and hardware) and several prototype spins. All in all it makes a lot of sense to do a small GUI on a microcontroller using a GUI library. NXP offers a royalty free GUI library for use with their LCD enabled microcontroller.

[Kilrah]

I think we're seeing the lines being blurred right now. MCUs are encroaching on SoCs, horse-power wise, and SoCs are encroaching on MCUs, prize-wise...

Exactly.

In this particular use-case, I'd stuff the timing and safety-critical stuff into a small MCU (STM32F030 or low-density STM32F103).  In this case, it would be sampling of the inputs, mixing, PCM modulation and fail-safe functions.
In addition to that, I'd stuff something like an AllWinner A20 SoC + 512MB of DDR (A20 can be bought for <$5 in 1-pcs), driving the display, audio, sd-cards,  wifi, dealing with model management, etc.
In total, it would be cheaper (BOM-wise) than a F429+SDRAM for example..

I expect the next generation to go that way. But for products that are arriving now like this one and of which development was started a couple of years ago the other aspects like current company experience/equipment and existing codebases still gave the MCU solution the edge. Moving to a SoC is quite a serious jump in complexity and required competence both for hardware design and manufacturing as for programming, and some who have tried that move in the field lately have been badly bitten by it and suffered several-year delays. IMO it was wise to play it safe there.

I'd myself like to work on something pretty high end based on something like a Zynq in order to integrate new capabilities like video, but that's gotta wait a little to see where the market is heading first.

[Kilrah]

NXP offers a royalty free GUI library for use with their LCD enabled microcontroller.

ST do the same by licensing and providing the emWin graphics library as a binary blob for free to their customers, I believe that's what the manufacturer uses for their firmware. Our open source alternative instead just uses basic "raw" graphics primitives.