Early Access to the STM32Cube HAL Drivers Major Update

[Emil Damkjaer PETERSEN]

Get early access to the next-generation STM32Cube HAL drivers for STM32U5

A major update to STM32Cube HAL drivers, called HAL2, is now available for preview on GitHub. It supports the STM32U5 series.

Building on over 10 years of experience, HAL2 delivers the following:

• More optimized drivers with a smaller footprint and improved performance
• Enhanced portability across STM32 devices to reduce development time
• A more intuitive API for easier and faster application development

To support this update, examples have been revamped for better reusability and understanding, and a new online documentation portal is introduced for enhanced content and easier navigation.

Try it now:

• Explore the preview on GitHub: STM32CubeU5-V2-Preview.
• Test the new features and share your feedback via GitHub Issues. Your input is essential for the final release.

Join the conversation and share your thoughts in the comments.

[Emil Damkjaer PETERSEN]

@Tom_pm and @Davide Dalfra any particular series you have in mind? And is it because you are looking at starting new projects or would like to upgrade current projects? 

[USBPD Dan]

To chime in re: availability on other series:

If one of the goals of HAL2 is Enhanced portability across STM32 devices, that's going to be defeated by any MCUs recently/currently in production that don't have a HAL2 framework.  Current STM HAL API is already fairly portable across processors, and in my company's codebase we make use of that.  This includes repos shared across projects.  There seem to be enough improvements in HAL2 to make an API break worthwhile, but porting STM HAL reliant code piecemeal with new processor dependencies will create desync issues between projects depending on which MCU they use.

[gbm]

While I generally like the changes introduced in HAL2, and especially the C startup instead of assembly, I am too dumb to understand why the ST programmers don't use bool type for simple config options and continue to use uint32_t for boolean variables. Could anybody enlighten me?

[Emil Damkjaer PETERSEN]

Hello @USBPD Dan,

Thank you very much for sharing your insights on how you and your company use HAL. Is the main challenge with the two HAL versions that HAL1 allows you to use the same application code with consistent HAL calls across multiple series, despite differences in HAL versions (e.g., STM32F7xx_HAL_Driver vs. STM32U5xx_HAL_Driver)?

If you have any suggestions on how ST could improve the experience of working with both HAL and HAL2, we would love to hear your ideas!

Best Regards,

Emil