MAX32660 , M4 ARM!

[MT]

Anyone got experience with these? It talks about Eclipse as platform but i cant find any relevant debuggers(well the eval board) and or tools for it (open source etc) . Interesting device  for those who needs lots of mem with a fast core on small fotprint. SRAM 96kB and Flash 256Kb  core at 96Mhz, major issue no ADC. 1.5euro unit/10packs. Few others delivers that ratio. Perhaps im just fooling my self again with MAXIM?

[nctnico]

Fast core, large memory and small footprint are interesting features. You don't see that very often.

[cgroen]

Thanks for bringing this up!
Discovered the MAX32630 also, 2 MB Flash and 512 KB RAM (and 4 uarts and an ADC), and in a 4.4 x 4.4 package!
Only problem (perhaps?) is that it is Maxim....

[Yansi]

Another uninteresting chip woes... $17 for that fakin boad? Ain't happening.

If you need decent capable small QFN packaged Cortex M4F, then look at STM32F302K8U. Cost just pennies more, than some weird maxim ic.  And for $11 you can have NUCLEO-F303K8 board, which is near the size of the maxim's wtf, but comes with a power supply, USB and an integrated full featured debugger on-board. 

And I do not think you will find many (if any) applications, where that much FLASH and RAM is needed, for a 32pin QFN job. And if you do, you may find a STM32f303CBT6 (256kB FLASH, 48kB RAM) to be way more interesting for you. Doesn't cost that much more and homegamers may find interesting, that these go for peanuts at aliexpress and such.

[andersm]

It talks about Eclipse as platform but i cant find any relevant debuggers(well the eval board) and or tools for it (open source etc) .

There's an open patch for OpenOCD for the MAX32xxx series.

[tszaboo]

Who cares, it is maxim. Probably they obsolete it when you try to buy it, or tell you that the lead time is 999 weeks the second time you try to buy it.

[MT]

Maxim eval tools.
https://www.maximintegrated.com/en/design/software-description.html/swpart=SFW0001500A

[SiliconWizard]

Uh yeah. They pretty much look like yet another "me too" line of products. Granted they come in small/low pin-count packages, but that's all they have to compete. As others have pointed out, I'd be wary of availability. I wouldn't be too impressed by the dev tools either.

[cgroen]

Well,
Keil (Arm) also supports it with their tools:

[MT]

Another uninteresting chip woes... $17 for that fakin boad? Ain't happening.

If you need decent capable small QFN packaged Cortex M4F, then look at STM32F302K8U. Cost just pennies more, than some weird maxim ic.  And for $11 you can have NUCLEO-F303K8 board, which is near the size of the maxim's wtf, but comes with a power supply, USB and an integrated full featured debugger on-board. 

And I do not think you will find many (if any) applications, where that much FLASH and RAM is needed, for a 32pin QFN job. And if you do, you may find a STM32f303CBT6 (256kB FLASH, 48kB RAM) to be way more interesting for you. Doesn't cost that much more and homegamers may find interesting, that these go for peanuts at aliexpress and such.

 

Yet another slow day on slowly evolving planet earth far out on the very edge of galaxy milky way among trillions and billions of other galaxies in a ever expanding universe.

[mikerj]

Uh yeah. They pretty much look like yet another "me too" line of products. Granted they come in small/low pin-count packages, but that's all they have to compete. As others have pointed out, I'd be wary of availability. I wouldn't be too impressed by the dev tools either.

Is there any other vendor that does a 256kb Flash/96k SRAM M4F part in a 1.6x1.6mm package?

[SiliconWizard]

Uh yeah. They pretty much look like yet another "me too" line of products. Granted they come in small/low pin-count packages, but that's all they have to compete. As others have pointed out, I'd be wary of availability. I wouldn't be too impressed by the dev tools either.

Is there any other vendor that does a 256kb Flash/96k SRAM M4F part in a 1.6x1.6mm package?

As I said, their small packages is all they have to make a difference. So yes, they have that. Now the applications where you would need this amount of memory and cpu power with only a few I/Os are probably not many. The watches market is likely what they target first for the smallest packages.

STM32L4 MCUs which would be in the same area (ultra low-power Cortex M4) come in 5mmx5mm as the smallest package I think, so quite bigger indeed (but they pack a lot more features).

The Atmel SAM G55 are a lot more powerful and do come in 49-pin packages that are 2.84mmx2.84mm - not too bad?

The ambiq micro Apollo2 is Cortex-M4 based, 256KB RAM, 1MB Flash, 10 µA/MHz, 14-bit ADC, ... comes in a 49-pin package which is 2.5mmx2.5mm. Now that's serious competiton.
http://www.fujitsu.com/us/products/devices/semiconductor/ambiq-micro/mcu/index.html

[nctnico]

Fujitsu is probably even more problematic to buy than Maxim so I don't know if that is an improvement. I think the small packages / large memory devices are very suitable for IoT devices which need run an encryption and networking protocols.

[mikerj]

Fast core, large memory and small footprint are interesting features. You don't see that very often.

If money is not an issue, psoc5lp in wlcsp is a good candidate.

Which variant?  I downloaded the CY8C52LP family datasheet and the smallest package shown was a ~5x6mm WLCSP.

I'm working on a project where size is critical, and the Maxim part seems like a good fit but I want to explore all options.  It's not for wearable or IOT and ultra low power consumption is not important, but need 256k Flash, 32k SRAM, at least two SPI interfaces and a UART.

[nctnico]

Fast core, large memory and small footprint are interesting features. You don't see that very often.

If money is not an issue, psoc5lp in wlcsp is a good candidate.

wlcsp is a BGA so not very easy to prototype or even use on a 2 layer board. Small QFN, SOIC or TSSOP is much better.

[MT]

If money is not an issue, psoc5lp in wlcsp is a good candidate.

wlcsp is a BGA so not very easy to prototype or even use on a 2 layer board.
Small QFN, SOIC or TSSOP is much better.

Amen!

As I said, their small packages is all they have to make a difference. So yes, they have that. Now the applications where you would need this amount of memory and cpu power with only a few I/Os are probably not many.
The watches market is likely what they target first for the smallest packages.

STM32L4 MCUs which would be in the same area (ultra low-power Cortex M4) come in 5mmx5mm
as the smallest package I think, so quite bigger indeed (but they pack a lot more features).

The Atmel SAM G55 are a lot more powerful and do come in 49-pin packages that are 2.84mmx2.84mm - not too bad?

Yes terrible bad , cant use oddbal pincounts , yet again WLSCP49 is 4 layer design,  look  NXP, Atmel, TI, MCHP etc etc do SOIC DIP some have made MCU's in SOIC/SSOP/DIP etc for decades, package these days should not be a problem, nor speed or memory but "deliberately" still are. Besides Farnell almost carry no G55's.

The ambiq micro Apollo2 is Cortex-M4 based, 256KB RAM, 1MB Flash, 10 µA/MHz, 14-bit ADC, ... comes in a 49-pin package which is 2.5mmx2.5mm. Now that's serious competiton.
http://www.fujitsu.com/us/products/devices/semiconductor/ambiq-micro/mcu/index.html

Not a serious contender your neglecting speed, your proposals are 24 and 48Mhz devizes.

[mikerj]

The Atmel SAM G55 are a lot more powerful and do come in 49-pin packages that are 2.84mmx2.84mm - not too bad?

Yes terrible bad , cant use oddbal pincounts , yet again WLSCP49 is 4 layer design,  look  NXP, Atmel, TI, MCHP etc etc do SOIC DIP some have made MCU's in SOIC/SSOP/DIP etc for decades, package these days should not be a problem, nor speed or memory but "deliberately" still are. Besides Farnell almost carry no G55's.

What is "oddball" about a 7x7 CSP package, and why can't they be used?

[MT]

The Atmel SAM G55 are a lot more powerful and do come in 49-pin packages that are 2.84mmx2.84mm - not too bad?

Yes terrible bad , cant use oddbal pincounts , yet again WLSCP49 is 4 layer design,  look  NXP, Atmel, TI, MCHP etc etc do SOIC DIP some have made MCU's in SOIC/SSOP/DIP etc for decades, package these days should not be a problem, nor speed or memory but "deliberately" still are. Besides Farnell almost carry no G55's.

What is "oddball" about a 7x7 CSP package, and why can't they be used?

Seriously? Read in the "theme" of the thread, perhaps Nctnico reply is enough on e.x  SiliconWizard "hopeless one way only rant. Noone is against small packages, I rest my case.

[SiliconWizard]

You're clearly overlooking the fact that I was replying to mikerj who was putting forward Maxim's 1.6x1.6mm package which is a 16-pin WLP with a 0.35mm pitch.

If you're convinced that those Maxim µC are the perfect fit for your use case, that's fine. But then why would you ask for opinions?

[mikerj]

The Atmel SAM G55 are a lot more powerful and do come in 49-pin packages that are 2.84mmx2.84mm - not too bad?

Yes terrible bad , cant use oddbal pincounts , yet again WLSCP49 is 4 layer design,  look  NXP, Atmel, TI, MCHP etc etc do SOIC DIP some have made MCU's in SOIC/SSOP/DIP etc for decades, package these days should not be a problem, nor speed or memory but "deliberately" still are. Besides Farnell almost carry no G55's.

What is "oddball" about a 7x7 CSP package, and why can't they be used?

Seriously? Read in the "theme" of the thread, perhaps Nctnico reply is enough on e.x  SiliconWizard "hopeless one way only rant. Noone is against small packages, I rest my case.

Yes seriously.  I guess your response to SiliconWizard was supposed to be sarcastic, but it didn't read like that.  Anyway, thanks to him for pointing out the G55 series, a bit larger than I'd like due to 0.4mm pitch but that is actually an advantage as it's will be mounted on a co-fired ceramic substrate rather than FR4 and 0.35mm seems to be rather difficult.

[SiliconWizard]

Anyway, thanks to him for pointing out the G55 series, a bit larger than I'd like due to 0.4mm pitch but that is actually an advantage as it's will be mounted on a co-fired ceramic substrate rather than FR4 and 0.35mm seems to be rather difficult.

Out of curiosity, what kind of product will that be for (if you can disclose this information)? Would also be interesting to see a picture of this module.

[MT]

You're clearly overlooking the fact that I was replying to mikerj who was putting forward Maxim's 1.6x1.6mm package which is a 16-pin WLP with a 0.35mm pitch.

If you're convinced that those Maxim µC are the perfect fit for your use case, that's fine. But then why would you ask for opinions?

Nope, your, Nandblog, Yansi first posts seams to be expressing general complaints about Maxim towards me to have the "guts" to even bring Maxim product into sight by placing words in my mouth. Im not asking for your "opinions based on complaints" on Maxim as a company, we all know how Maxim are you just dont read my first post properly. Still not want to. Failure is on you , Nandblog, Yansi for using shabby debate tactics.

SiliconWizard said:
Uh yeah. They pretty much look like yet another "me too" line of products. Granted they come in small/low pin-count packages, but that's all they have to compete. As others have pointed out, I'd be wary of availability. I wouldn't be too impressed by the dev tools either.

Yes seriously.  I guess your response to SiliconWizard was supposed to be sarcastic, but it didn't read like that.

Anyway, thanks to him for pointing out the G55 series, a bit larger than I'd like due to 0.4mm pitch but that is actually an advantage as it's will be mounted on a co-fired ceramic substrate rather than FR4 and 0.35mm seems to be rather difficult.

Space savings on PCB for fine pitch PCB is grossly overrated, a lot of people thinks that just because they do finer and finer pitch the savings/cost will go down when in fact in many cases goes up. take STM32 for example due to hideous pin mux decisions some STM32s is a mess of signals, forces you to use 4-6 layers boards when it could have been solved on 2 layers.

The complaints he has is not directed to you seriously. Thread is about MCU's in small package with a specific ratio if you bother to read my first post. I couldn't care less if it's Maxim och Hong Ching Ping as long it's about a specific ratio.

Nothing stops you, silliconwisard, Yansi, Nandblog, to start a thread debating "your specific" MCU issues and complaints about Maxim whatever.