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waclawek.jan
waclawek.jan
Super User
October 20, 2016
Question

STM32H7 series - brutal raw power of 400MHz clock

  • October 20, 2016
  • 10 replies
  • 1804 views
Posted on October 20, 2016 at 11:10

While I see no announcement, the following is online:

http://www.st.com/content/st_com/en/products/microcontrollers/stm32-32-bit-arm-cortex-mcus/stm32h7-series.html?querycriteria=productId=SS1951

Not only the 400MHz Fclk is worth mentioning, but also 1MB of RAM (64kB ITCM + 128kB DTCM, the rest is a 3-part user SRAM  and 4kB backup SRAM)

JW

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    10 replies

    Amel NASRI
    Amel NASRI
    ST Technical Moderator
    October 20, 2016
    Posted on October 20, 2016 at 15:32

    http://www.st.com/content/st_com/en/about/media-center/press-item.html/p3878.html

    To give better visibility on the answered topics, please click on "Best Answer" on the reply which solved your issue or answered your question.
    jpeacock23
    jpeacock23
    Associate
    October 21, 2016
    Posted on October 21, 2016 at 21:18

    It looks like a nice fit below an A series based controller.  An M7 is a lot easier to use compared to going the A5, A7, A9 or an old ARM11 route.  Forcing that jump to SDRAM from flash and internal SRAM adds a lot to the BOM cost, plus the layout hassles going to BGA and extra PCB layers.

    By coincidence just after reading about the H7 I was handed a problem that needs a custom built gateway from proprietary radio to Ethernet.  The H7 is fast enough to handle the thruput and large enough memory that I don't have to look at an A7.  Timing for the announcement could not be better....

      Jack Peacock

    waclawek.jan
    waclawek.janAuthor
    Super User
    November 16, 2016
    Posted on November 16, 2016 at 13:43

    In action, http://blog.st.com/see-new-stm32h7-mcu-action/

    The real stuff is from 2:15.

    This of course does not demonstrate the powers of 'H7xx, but that of the built-in hardware JPEG decoder. Pretty, though.

    A few pictures of the evalboard used in that demo: http://time4ee.com/articles.php?article_id=35

    JW

    AvaTar
    AvaTar
    Senior III
    November 16, 2016
    Posted on November 16, 2016 at 14:14

    > It looks like a nice fit below an A series based controller.  An M7 is a lot easier to use compared to going the A5, A7, A9 or an old ARM11 route.  Forcing that jump to SDRAM from flash and internal SRAM adds a lot to the BOM cost, plus the layout hassles going to BGA and extra PCB layers.

     

    Depends on one's viewpoint (i.e. requirements).

    A Cortex A (or another ''real'' CPU) allows a proper OS environment like Linux, with a huge quantity of available and free software, including developers.

    For certain projects, hardware design costs are less of a driving factor.

    With this in mind, I'm not really surprised by the rather reluctant market acceptance of M7 devices.

    waclawek.jan
    waclawek.janAuthor
    Super User
    November 16, 2016
    Posted on November 16, 2016 at 14:22

    > reluctant market acceptance of M7 devices

    Do you have numbers or any other fact in supporting this?

    Thanks,

    JW

    AvaTar
    AvaTar
    Senior III
    November 16, 2016
    Posted on November 16, 2016 at 15:37

    > Do you have numbers or any other fact in supporting this?

    No - just statements of MCU vendor staff at trade shows.

    And, of course, project discussions at my company/companies that I witnessed.

    AvaTar
    AvaTar
    Senior III
    November 16, 2016
    Posted on November 16, 2016 at 15:45

    To add another comment:

    Does not speak the number of available M7 silicons (and the number of M7 licensees) speak for itself ?

    But that might as well have to do with the ongoing ''consolidation process'' in the MCU world (which gives me kind of a headache ...).

    AvaTar
    AvaTar
    Senior III
    November 23, 2016
    Posted on November 23, 2016 at 13:05

    Here

    http://www.elektroniknet.de/design-elektronik/halbleiter/komplexe-mcus-beherrschbar-machen-134788.html

    about a multi-vendor round table discussion, coming to similar conclusions. However, in German language.

    waclawek.jan
    waclawek.janAuthor
    Super User
    November 23, 2016
    Posted on November 23, 2016 at 13:55

    Thanks, AvaTar.

    Jan
    aaron239955_stm1_st
    aaron239955_stm1_st
    Senior
    January 4, 2017
    Posted on January 04, 2017 at 04:21

    Yes, the crossover gets blurred very quickly.  When you have real hardware (Raspberry Pi 3B) that sells for $35 retail containing a multi-core ARM A running at 1GHz, 1GB RAM, built-in USB ports(4), Wifi, E'Net (with Phy), camera interface, HDMI.  Add a 32GB flash card for $10, or 64G for $20 and it makes the space for the M7/H7 pretty tight.

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