MCU with IO bandwidth of 150Mhz or more

VVarg.1 · ‎2022-03-09

Hi All,

He have an application that requires fast IO's switching. More specifically, we have a 16bit 200Msps parallel DAC and we are targeting to load a waveform from either flash memory or external memory and output the bits for the DAC. Using an FPGA is of course an option but it will be convenient to have an MCU for this application.

My question is

Any MCU that can have an IO bandwidth of 150Mhz? If negative what would be he closest one? I've seen people running STM32F4 boards at 162Mhz reaching a BW of 30Mhz using minimum instructions and BSSR instructions.

TDK · ‎2022-03-09

No, you can get in the neighborhood of 8 MHz toggling BSRR via DMA on STM32F4, but that's about the limit. STM32H7 is worse than this. Just isn't designed for that.

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Tesla DeLorean · ‎2022-03-09

Definitely in the realm of CPLD/FPGA type implementations. Find an FPGA with a hard core in it, or pick as soft core MCU you like more.

FIFO memories?

My old boss would probably have built a small state machine and bolted some cheap SDRAM or VRAM to it.

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VVarg.1 · ‎2022-03-09

Hi @TDK , Thanks for your reply. I haven't considered using DMA but for sure it will still not be fast enough. Regards

VVarg.1 · ‎2022-03-09

Hi @Community member , Agree with you. Thanks for your reply and I guess We'll not have another choice than to use an FPGA. Even the DAC eval board uses a Spartan FPGA to accomplish the demo!