The STM32 family adds a new member, with a higher cost-performance than the F0 series

As the second best-selling product in STMicroelectronics' STM32 product line, the STM32F0 series has a very high market share and is highly praised by engineers. The development of the market continues to spur product progress. Less than five years after the launch of STM32F0, STMicroelectronics launched the upgraded STM32G0 series, which will become the most cost-effective choice after F0.

According to Pierre Charvet, product line marketing manager of STMicroelectronics' microcontroller division, the STM32G0 series, as an upgraded version of the F0, still uses the ARM Cortex-M0 series core and is positioned as a mainstream STM32 microcontroller product.

According to the above picture, everyone must be wondering, the STM32G0 series is so similar to the STM32F0, why is it said that the STM32G0 is an upgraded version of the STM32F0? And this requires us to first review the STM32F0 series products that are well known to everyone.

STM32F0 major product series, source: STMicroelectronics official website

From the above figure, we can get the following information: the STM32F0 series uses a 48MHz ARM Cortex-M0 core and supports up to 256k Flash. The newly launched STM32G0 series has improved these aspects. The STM32G0 uses a 64MHz ARM Cortex-M0+ core, supports a higher CPU processing speed, and increases the maximum capacity of the flash memory to 512k. In addition, the STM32G0 also provides more packaging options, with packages ranging from 8 pins to 100 pins to choose from.

“The STM32G0 series targets entry-level applications that require smaller size, higher energy efficiency, more functionality, greater security and better cost-performance,” said Pierre Charvet.

So how does STM32G0 achieve higher efficiency and more powerful functions?

According to Pierre Charvet, STM32G0 uses a new power distribution architecture to reduce external power and ground connections to only one pair of pins, leaving more space for general pins. The internal power distribution scheme reduces the number of external power decoupling components, thereby saving BOM costs and enabling designers to design more functions in a smaller space and save costs.

In summary, the three key words of the new STM32G0 series are efficiency, robustness and simplicity. The efficiency brought by high integration, high performance and low power consumption; the robustness brought by safety design; and the ease of use brought by the STM32 software development platform over the years make STM32G0 the most cost-effective choice after F0.

Therefore, the performance improvement and BOM reduction brought by STM32G0 make it more versatile as a mainstream MCU, suitable for a wide range of fields such as consumer electronics and industry, allowing developers to develop more complex applications on small-size, low-cost products.

In this conference, Pierre Charvet repeatedly used a word when introducing the topic of "STM32G0 is ready for the future" - intelligence, which includes intelligent peripherals, intelligent integration and intelligent applications. In our opinion, there must be big data behind future intelligent products, and how to ensure that we are not naked in big data is the meaning of the existence of security functions. And this is also the explanation of the word robustness among the three key words of STM32G0.

In order to provide robust data security protection for today's IoT devices, the STM32G0 series introduces a variety of hardware-based security features, including memory protection mechanisms that support secure boot. To assist with password encryption, some products in this series add an AES-256 hardware accelerator with a hardware random number generator on top of the security features.

Similar to STM32F0, STM32G0 has also launched multiple series. Currently, the company's G0 products only have the basic series and the premium series. When comparing the safety performance of the two, we found that the basic series describes the safety aspect as having advanced safety functions, while the premium series describes it as having safety protection functions.

Cao Jindong, Marketing and Application Director of the Microcontroller Business Unit of STMicroelectronics China, made a vivid metaphor for the two during the communication with us: "Safety protection function can be understood as safety (reliability), and advanced safety function as security (security). Safety and security are like a house. Safety is to ensure the normal operation of the house, just like ensuring that the doors and windows do not fall off due to aging. Security is to prevent someone from deliberately breaking in through the door or window, that is, to prevent malicious attacks."

In STM32G0, the basic series has functions such as CPU clock monitoring, ECC, and key storage, while the value series does not have a key storage function, but the chip itself can still ensure safe operation.

When can we buy the cost-effective STM32G0 series? Pierre Charvet said that some STM32G0 products have been mass-produced, and related products with flash memory capacity below 64K will be shipped in the first half of next year, and 256k-512k products will be available in the first half of 2020. STMicroelectronics plans to derive multiple product lines from the STM32G0 series, including the STM32G071 and the STM32G081 with hardware encryption functions, as well as the STM32G070 value series for the mass market.

Text/Semiconductor Industry Observer Jiang Siying

Today is the 1795th issue of content shared by "Semiconductor Industry Observer" for you, welcome to follow.

Moore Elite is a leading chip design accelerator with the vision of "making it easy to make chips in China". Its business includes "chip design services, supply chain management, talent services, and incubation services". Its customers cover 1,500 chip companies and 500,000 engineers. We are committed to providing ASIC design and Turnkey solutions, from Spec/FPGA/algorithms to chip delivery, including: chip architecture planning, IP selection, front-end design, DFT, verification, physical design, layout, tape-out, packaging and testing services. Since 2012, our team has been focusing on accumulating technical capabilities to help customers achieve optimal chip performance, and support flexible service models such as Turnkey, NRE, professional consulting and on-site. Moore Elite currently has 200 employees worldwide, headquartered in Shanghai, with branches in Beijing, Shenzhen, Hefei, Chongqing, Suzhou, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Xi'an, Nanjing, Xiamen, Hsinchu and Silicon Valley.