Electronics > Microcontrollers

STM32U3 announced

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SiliconWizard:
The STM32U3 has been announced at the CES. It should be a Cortex-M33 @ 96 MHz max and, apparently, it's their first (that I know of?) subthreshold MCU.

Datasheet and product page not available yet (that I could find). Already listed (but of course non-stock) at Mouser, and it appeared in the Cube tools a couple months ago.
Should be interesting in terms of price point and power consumption.

Whales:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subthreshold_conduction

How common is this?  Are there any ICs on the market using it?

I'm going to guess that it's completely infeasible to do a whole (fast) micro core subthreshold and instead STM is probably using it just for a few small things like sleep/wakeup timers.

This video released by STM on the U3 just claims it uses "subthreshold technology" and not much more than that:

SiliconWizard:
Yes, Ambiq has been doing this for over 10 years. https://ambiq.com/soc

I believe that what Ambiq implements is covered by a number of patents, so it'll be interesting to see how ST did it, how it is different.

PCB.Wiz:

--- Quote from: SiliconWizard on January 24, 2025, 12:57:28 am ---The STM32U3 has been announced at the CES. It should be a Cortex-M33 @ 96 MHz max and, apparently, it's their first (that I know of?) subthreshold MCU.

--- End quote ---
MOSFETs are analog, and the threshold is a nominal idea, specified at some drain current.
Claims of 'subthreshold' are likely more marketing spin.
A FET that is always subthreshold, is never on. ???

Keil website reports this
Family  STM32U3 Series  Core Cortex-M33, 160 MHz

Whales:

--- Quote from: SiliconWizard on January 24, 2025, 05:09:25 am ---Yes, Ambiq has been doing this for over 10 years. https://ambiq.com/soc

I believe that what Ambiq implements is covered by a number of patents, so it'll be interesting to see how ST did it, how it is different.

--- End quote ---

The datasheet for their Apollo4 claims "5 µA/MHz active mode current" and "up to 250Mhz".  Wow, that would only be 1.25mA.  Suspiciously good, I've never heard of these things, maybe I'm misunderstanding and the power draw isn't as good as this in practice?

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