ST unveils extremely-compact, low-cost, low-power MCUs

STMicroelectronics has announced the STM32F410 MCUs that belong to the STM32F4 Access Line. The devices have entered volume production and are supported by the NUCLEO-F410RB development board, which according to the company are smaller, lower-power and lower-cost entry point to the high-performance STM32 F4 series.

The STM32F410 features the ARM Cortex-M4F core, giving performance of 125 DMIPS and 339 EEMBC CoreMark at 100MHz. Power-conscious STM32 Dynamic Efficiency features such as ST's ART Accelerator1 and voltage scaling help drive dynamic power down to 89µA/MHz. STOP current of just 6µA makes its performance accessible for applications such as wearables, Internet of Things (IoT) devices, sensor hubs, building automation, personal medical devices and smartphones.

NUCLEO-F410RB extends the affordable STM32 Nucleo board series to support the STM32F410, added the company. On-board support for Arduino Uno connectivity and ST morpho connectors simplify expansion using stackable modules such as motion sensing, near-field communication (NFC), Bluetooth, or IEEE 802.15.4 radio boards. The updated STM32CubeF4 suite comprising hardware abstraction layer (HAL), middleware and code examples, together with the latest STM32CubeMX code generator, complete the ecosystem.

Engineered for tiny package sizes, STM32F410 devices have from 64KB to 128KB Flash and 32KB SRAM, and feature a strong peripheral set with up to six timers including motor-control and 32bit/100MHz timers. Communication ports include SPI, I2C, I2S and USART plus an ISO 7816 interface, as well as a 12bit DAC, an additional feature compared with other STM32F41x devices. The STM32F410 is available in UFQFPN48 or LQFP64 packages, or a 2.55mm x 2.58mm 36-bump WLCSP making it the smallest of all existing STM32 F4 devices.

Designers of sensing applications on a tight power budget can take advantage of the STM32F410's support for Batch Acquisition Mode (BAM), one of ST's Dynamic Efficiency innovations, which enables efficient use of the MCU's power-management modes by capturing sensor data directly into SRAM while the CPU and Flash remain off. The STM32F410 also introduces a RUN mode that allows Flash to be powered down for optimal power savings.

NUCLEO-F410RB is priced at $14. Budgetary pricing for the STM32F410, for orders of 10,000 pieces per year, is from $1.4 in the WLCSP36 with 64KByte Flash and 32KB SRAM, to $$1.856 in LQFP64 with 128KB Flash and 32KB SRAM.

Datasheet: http://www.st.com/web/en/resource/technical/document/datasheet/DM00214043.pdf