GD32 MCU ecological update! Highlights frequently

On March 14, the 2023 Embedded World 2023 (hereinafter referred to as: EW23) in Nuremberg, Germany, kicked off. With the theme of "embedded responsible sustainability", EW23 will discuss the latest development trends and technological innovations in the field of embedded system development with global exhibitors. GigaDevice’s innovative GigaDevice showcased a variety of market-leading MCU products, development ecology and innovative solutions. GD32 is continuing to work with global partners to provide high-quality and convenient localized support services with a global service network to help customers achieve product iteration and sustainable business growth.

The GD32F470 series of high-performance MCUs were rated as the "Top Things To See" products at this conference and recommended to more than 20,000 embedded design engineers from around the world via email. At the same time, the GD32E230 series of value-for-money MCUs were successfully nominated for the "Best-in-Show" (Best Exhibition Award).

Mr. Reuben Townsend, FAE Manager of GigaDevice Europe, accepted an exclusive interview with EE Times Europe, the world's leading media in the field of electronic technology. He introduced to the audience the product features and innovative features of multiple high-performance MCUs including GD32E5, GD32H7, GD32W515 and GD32F470. solution.

▲ Mr. Reuben Townsend accepted a video interview with EE Times Europe

GigaDevice’s innovative flagship high-performance GD32H7 series MCU will also be officially released in the near future . This exhibition is the first show of the official development kit of the GD32H7 series.

▲ GD32H7xxI-EVAL Board

The GD32H7 series provides 600MHz processing power with the Arm® Cortex®-M7 core and built-in advanced DSP and FPU. Equipped with 1024KB to 3840KB Flash and 1024KB SRAM, including 512KB of tightly coupled memory for optimal processing efficiency. GD32H7 integrates an LCD display and a hardware graphics accelerator, which can significantly improve display quality, while also adding data security encryption functions. It is suitable for many innovative application scenarios such as digital signal processing, motor control, power supply, energy storage system, audio and speech recognition, edge computing, and AI.

In recent years, the new energy market has developed rapidly. Photovoltaic inverter combined with energy storage can effectively manage energy conversion and develop in synergy and integration with traditional energy sources. "Photovoltaic + energy storage" has become one of the most popular forms of energy development worldwide.

The GD32F4 series of high-performance MCUs are widely used in core systems such as photovoltaic inverters, energy storage, and battery management due to their high frequency, large storage, high-precision timers and high-speed ADCs. In addition, GD32F4's advanced peripheral interface, LCD controller and graphics accelerator can support functional modules such as communication monitoring and human-computer interaction in new energy systems, helping equipment manufacturers quickly realize the intelligent cloud migration of optical storage equipment and seize the energy market. Take the initiative.

▲ Energy storage system BMS and communication monitoring module using GD32F4

The switching power supply is a regulated power supply that uses a high-frequency switching regulator to convert the power supply and regulate the output, with the ability to regulate the output of stable direct current. Compared with traditional power supplies, digital power supplies have the advantages of high efficiency, low heat dissipation, and high power density.

At this exhibition, GD32 exhibited two digital power solutions. Among them, the newly launched 500W digital power solution adopts the bridge PFC + half-bridge LLC topology: the PFC part is controlled by GD32E230C, inputs 220V AC power, and outputs 415V DC voltage; the LLC part is controlled by GD32E503R, inputs 415V DC voltage, and outputs 24V DC voltage, and adopts SHRTIMER controls the frequency change of the LLC MOS tube to obtain higher control accuracy, and the maximum efficiency of the whole machine can reach more than 90%.

▲ GD32E230+GD32E503 series PFC+LLC switching power supply solution

The Arm® Cortex®-M33 core used in the GD32E5 series of high-performance MCUs has a built-in hardware multiplier/divider, and provides a complete DSP instruction set and single-precision floating point operation unit. It is equipped with a hardware trigonometric function accelerator to realize digital signals with enhanced computing power. Processing and switching power supply control can replace traditional DSP, run MPPT algorithm to achieve maximum power tracking of photovoltaic modules, and realize data collection, communication monitoring and fast shutdown functions.

▲ GD32E503 series switching power supply solution

GD32E5 has a built-in 90ps ultra-high-precision timer (SHRTimer) and 5 independent counters, which can generate 5 groups of 2-channel PWM control signals with dead-zone complementary outputs, and can be linked with other peripherals to generate the high frequency required for sine wave inversion. waveform.

Human-machine interface (HMI) technology is developing rapidly and iteratively. It connects industrial control equipment such as PLCs, inverters, instruments, and home control platforms through bus communication interfaces such as serial ports, Ethernet, and CAN, allowing users to more intelligently, easily, and intuitively way to interact with end devices and home appliances in work and home settings.

The performance of the processor largely determines the overall performance of the HMI. The GD32F4 series MCU has been adopted by many industrial and high-end consumer customers with HMI needs due to its high performance, strong real-time, and large capacity.

LVGL is a lightweight open source free embedded GUI design tool. Equipped with GD32F470, it can unleash unlimited potential. The demo shown on site is equipped with a 7-inch LCD screen with a resolution of 1024*600 pixels. The demo includes buttons and labels. , sliders, charts, keyboards, gauges, curves, tables and many other built-in component functions.

▲ GD32F470 LVGL GUI solution

TARA Systems is a software tools and services company founded in 1990 that is providing solutions for millions of embedded systems in consumer electronics, industrial, automotive and mobile devices.

Embedded Wizard is an embedded GUI technology from TARA Systems, which can create high-performance graphical user interfaces even on MCU platforms with limited resources. With the advantages of streamlined code, rich functions, scalability, and convenient development, it can effectively simplify users' GUI development work on GD32 MCU and accelerate product development and launch.

▲ Embedded Wizard GUI solution

As the application of the Internet of Everything and artificial intelligence grows by leaps and bounds, emerging applications that are empowered by HMI technology and support voice control, face and gesture recognition ML algorithms continue to emerge, enriching the intelligent control and interaction methods of IoT devices.

The GD32W515 series is GigaDevice's first wireless Wi-Fi MCU. It is designed based on the Cortex-M33 core and provides enhanced computing power and rich integrated resources for the AIoT field.

The IoT Wi-Fi module X115Z-RA jointly launched by GD32 and Ouzhitong has obtained Arm platform security architecture PSA Level1, PSA Functional API certification, Wi-Fi Alliance certification, and RF FCC/CE compliance certification. Equipped with MCU's rich resources and basic peripherals, the module is fully compatible with the GD32 MCU development environment and usage habits, allowing developers to easily build Wi-Fi connection solutions.

▲ GD32W515 series Wi-Fi module

GigaDevice also provides users with a three-in-one hardware solution that integrates brushless motors, stepper motors and Wi-Fi communications, supporting functions such as voice control, smart distribution, and OTA upgrades. It includes the GD32W515 series Wi-Fi -Fi MCU and GD30DR8413 high-performance motor driver chip. In addition, connected to the speech recognition chip through the UART interface, this solution supports local voice wake-up and recognition functions, and is suitable for a variety of application scenarios such as home appliances, central control panels, and gateways.

▲ GD32W515 fan control + local speech recognition solution

GigaDevice combines the RISC-V core with mainstream wireless communication technologies on the market, and plans to launch Wi-Fi 6+BLE 5.2 wireless dual-mode MCU products within the year , making customers' wireless connections more secure through leading radio frequency performance and rich integration resources. Very market competitive. At the same time, GigaDevice is also continuing to create a rich and diverse wireless AIoT development and application ecosystem, providing a variety of smart home connection solutions including matter to help customers accelerate the product development cycle.

GD32 MCU supports mainstream RTOS and cloud connection protocols, such as Amazon AWS cloud service, Azure RTOS, FreeRTOS, RT-Thread and Zephyr, etc. GD32 product models that have passed the adaptation certification can be queried on the corresponding website, and all codes can be downloaded for free from major open source hosting websites.

The TWS wireless headset charging compartment solution of GD32E230 and GD30WS8805 power management chip has been adopted by some industry brand customers and shipped in batches.

▲ GD32E230 series TWS wireless headset charging compartment solution

The GD32L233 series MCU adopts the industry-leading ultra-low power process and Arm® Cortex®-M23 core, coupled with specially optimized low-power IP, and has ultra-high GPIO reuse rate. Typical application scenarios include industrial meters and small consumer products. Electronic equipment, portable medical equipment, battery management systems, data acquisition and transmission, etc. The logistics cold chain monitoring equipment designed based on GD32L233 uses a 12-bit high-resolution ADC to collect data from temperature sensors. It uses embedded security IP TRNG and CAU to perform encryption and decryption verification of data collection and transmission, and provides a variety of power-saving modes. to extend the battery life of portable devices.

▲ Logistics cold chain solution using GD32L233

GigaDevice Innovation will continue to promote the iteration of low-power MCU products from many aspects such as process, core, product architecture, analog IP, wake-up mechanism and energy-saving mode, and equip various product positioning with multiple packaging types to become an energy application and Continuous drive for energy efficiency optimization.

Motor control applications based on GD32 MCU have been commercialized in various terminals such as service robots, smart home appliances, refrigeration compressors, balancing vehicles, power tools, industrial servo motors, etc., widely empowering innovation in many industries.

The GD32 product integrates independent multiplication and division units and other computing units, high-precision timers and hardware accelerators, supports three-phase six-channel PWM waveforms, and also has built-in rich analog peripherals such as high-performance ADCs, high-speed operational amplifiers, and comparators. Paired with the motor algorithm self-developed by the GD32 team, the size and direction of the magnetic field can be accurately controlled for "pixel-level" control. While driving the motor, it can also drive the display screen, which can display the motor working status and operating parameters in real time.

The key reason why GigaDevice Innovation is deeply trusted by customers is that GD32 has created a development ecosystem that closely integrates products, users and partners with mutual benefit and symbiosis. Customers can choose tools that meet their own needs and build solutions that are more suitable for their own development. solution to achieve independent and controllable needs while effectively reducing R&D costs.

On the one hand, GigaDevice continues to tap the potential of the GD32 series of products, providing developers with software and hardware development kits and various self-developed solutions and algorithms. On the other hand, GD32, together with global partners, continues to introduce more integrated development environment IDE, development kit EVB, graphical interface GUI, security components, embedded AI, operating system and cloud connection solution options for users.

▲ Continue to strengthen cooperation with third-party ecological partners to support customer needs

Germany's SEGGER, a well-known embedded tool manufacturer in the industry, has fully cooperated with GigaDevice. All SEGGER tools now support the full range of GD32 MCU products, including Arm and RISC-V cores. For example, Embedded Studio integrated development environment (IDE), market-leading J-Link emulator, Ozone debugger, real-time operating system embOS and communications, data storage, compressed sensing, software libraries in the field of Internet of Things, and Flasher programmer.

The latest version of IAR Embedded Workbench® for Arm 9.32.1 released by IAR Systems, a well-known Swedish software developer, fully supports GigaDevice GD32 series MCUs. Using the simulation debugging tool I-jet as the JTAG hardware debugging emulator, and connecting to a PC running Windows via USB, you can use IAR Embedded Workbench to develop the GD32 series MCU in real time.

Embeetle, an innovative microcontroller IDE supplier from Belgium, has designed a new integrated development environment for embedded software development, providing users with a very intuitive experience. Currently, Embeetle has also supported GigaDevice's MCUs based on Arm and RISC-V cores, bringing the unique Embeetle IDE to GD32 MCU users, thus exerting balanced processing capabilities between reducing power consumption and providing rich peripherals.

ProMik, the world's leading supplier of development and mass production tools, demonstrated a network security programming solution for GigaDevice's innovative GD32VF103 series MCUs. Through its MSP series programmers, ProMik provides integrated debugging capabilities for GD32 MCUs, building a safe production environment that is both time and cost-effective. In addition, world-renowned development and mass production tool manufacturers such as P&E Micro and Algocraft exhibited efficient and safe debugging and downloading tools adapted to GD32 MCU at the exhibition site.

The famous inventor Franklin once said: "We are enjoying the huge benefits that other people's inventions have brought to us, and we must also be willing to use our own inventions to serve others." GigaDevice Innovation will further enrich the GD32 product matrix to meet the needs of differentiation market demand. At the same time, by strengthening investment in self-research of solutions and ecological cooperation, we will continue to add to the core value of GD32 and provide products and services to more high-quality customers from all over the world.

* All trademarks, logos and brand names mentioned in this article are the property of their respective owners.

Click to view more GD32MCU content

↓↓↓