New to STM - is there a clear best choice board for real-time audio & video programming / possibly ML?

NNagy.1 · ‎2020-02-10

I've been recommended the G4 or F3 based just on the fact that I'm interested in DSP, but am still trying to narrow things down a bit further, or get a second opinion.

One particular project I'm especially interested in is a live audio sampler / looper, so I either need on-board ADCs/DACs or an I2S interface (I have a PMOD I2S2, so as long as I can hook that up). I would also like a board that is very little interrupt latency since this project would involve a lot of starting / stopping / manipulating signals on the fly. I highly doubt any of the boards have enough on-board memory that I can store substantial audio samples, so I'd probably need an off-board RAM and an easy way to connect to that.

In general, I like plenty of freedom with programming boards and very little hardware abstraction. I don't know if that makes a difference.

Sorry if all of these specs are trivial, and maybe any board will do, but I thought I would ask the community!

NNagy.1 · ‎2020-02-13

@berendi in response to ST boards not having great ADC: I do have an external ADC/DAC PMOD device, so as long as the ST boards have good I2S I don't think I need to be too concerned?

Ozone · ‎2020-02-13

That's a tricky question.

Consider what you want to connect (memory ?), then check the datasheet of the MCU, and compare with the schematics of the Nucleo.

FMC needs a lot of pins, which might be in use already. But usually, the Nucleo boards are a good starting point, they are less stuffed with show-off peripherals like some discovery boards.

Ozone · ‎2020-02-13

> I'm less familiar with Cortex A series. Part of why I was avoiding something with that many features is I didn't want my design to start getting too complicated. How are their I2S interfaces / capabilities generally?

Cortex A would usually imply an OS, mostly Linux. You would start from another abstraction level. Most low level drivers are coming from the vendor, or volunteers.

For I2S, you would need to check each variant in detail.

I would not want to restrict myself to ST with Cortex A, though.

berendi · ‎2020-02-13

I've checked it in CubeMX, FMC pins are available on the Nucleo-144. A conflict with the onboard UART can be fixed by rearranging some bridges.

I'm still not sure whether an SDRAM could be connected that way, there are too many high frequency signals involved.

Piranha · ‎2020-02-18

You have not stated what audio fidelity requirements do you have. For a generic use and testing the onboard WM8994 on many discovery boards is more than enough. Also, for example, on STM32F769I-DISCO SAI1_B and I2S2 can be routed out on Arduino UNO header simultaneously.