MCU to choose in between STM32WB55 or STM32WB0 for BLE development

teja_111 · ‎2024-09-22

A quick question regarding the development for our Bluetooth product, we have gone through your product portfolio of the STM32WB series which has several options to choose. We have the analyzed the following scenario

The First one we choose is STM32WB55 MCU, which is a dual core with M4 and MO cores for application development of the BLE.

The Second option, we have is STM32WB0 MCU, which contains only MO core, which needs to be controlled via an external MCU such as STM32H series with some common communication interfaces such as SPI or UART.

Can you suggest us, which one to choose in order to be more flexible in Hardware design, programming and certification for the Bluetooth product?

Remi QUINTIN · ‎2024-09-25

STM32WB55 is a complete SOC that enables a simpler design with less components on the board. You can also find many reference designs on our web site.

From system standpoint, it can be programmed at once with the CubeProgrammer tool. You would not have to consider the programming of each MCU in a two-MCU design.

The STM32WB55 is a quite mature MCU supporting the most recent BLE certifications and also the RF PHY certifications like FCC, CE and for many other countries.

You can also visit our wiki regrading the certification process (see below). This applies to both WB0 and WB55 MCUs.

https://www.st.com/en/embedded-software/stm32cube-mcu-mpu-packages.html

https://wiki.st.com/stm32mcu/wiki/Connectivity:Certification_guideline/Bluetooth_Qualification_Process_example_with_STM32WBx

From a flexibility standpoint, selecting the host MCU controlling the WB0 may be an important point. It depends on the application of the device that may require faster core with a bigger embedded flash memory.

Andrew Neil · ‎2024-09-25

@teja_111 wrote:
STM32WB0 MCU, which contains only MO core, which needs to be controlled via an external MCU

Is that true?

Can you not have both application and radio stack in one WB0 chip?

Remi QUINTIN · ‎2024-09-25

Yes you can run a BLE application on WB0 as it is a SOC.

But as you were mentioning using it as a network coprocessor via USB on SPI communication, I was thinking you were willing to run the top application on the host MCU.

Remi QUINTIN · ‎2024-09-25

To be more explicit on WB0 capabilities, Stm32wb0 devices are soc where you directly run a Bluetooth le application. There is only 1 binary library which is configurable at compile time for including excluding specific BLE features.

Furthermore you can also target proprietary radio application on top of radio driver Core is cortex m0 + The device can also configured to work as network coprocessor mode through uart and spi with an external micro => your 2nd option.