STMicroelectronics High performance microcontrollers clear the way for new innovations in smart home and industrial systems

     STMicroelectronics has released a new high-performance product that combines the best of both the MPU and MCU. Microprocessor (MPU) systems are generally more complex, with higher processing performance, system scalability, and data security, while microcontroller (MCU) systems have the advantage of being simple and highly integrated. Taking the advantages of both, ST's new products have evolved.

     With the adoption of these new STM32H7 MCUS, device manufacturers can more quickly and cost-effectively develop smart home appliances, smart building controllers, industrial automation and personal medical devices to meet the growing needs of end-market users. Specific use cases include adding a more colorful graphical user interface that performs several different functions simultaneously. These designs often require a microprocessor (MPU) to implement.

     Patrick Aidoune, General manager of ST's General MCU division, said: "We are proud that our STM32 is the world's most popular Arm Cortex-M microcontroller, and the latest STM32H7 family enables designers to address even more use cases with this robust ecosystem, with MPU-class features that deliver superior core performance, MCU peripheral integration and convenience, at an affordable price."

     Kamil Kozlowski, CEO of Riverdi, a potential customer for the STM32H7R/S MCUS, said: "The integration of these two MCUS with dedicated graphics processors and fast storage interfaces is a perfect fit for our mission of pushing the limits of embedded displays. Riverdi used this chip to design the next generation of display modules. The new MCU is expected to improve the visual performance and responsiveness of future displays, resulting in a more engaging user experience, and represents an important step in our development of cutting-edge display solutions to our customers."

     The STM32H7R and STM32H7S new microcontrollers have powerful security features to meet the network security requirements of Internet of Things (IoT) applications. Common security features of both products include protection against physical attacks, memory protection, code isolation protection to protect applications at run time, and platform verification. In addition, the STM32H7S product also adds more enhanced security features, integrating immutable trust roots, debugging verification, and hardware encryption accelerators, which support the latest encryption algorithms to prevent unauthorized access to code and data. With these security features, both products are focused on SESIP3 and PSA Level 3 and below, meeting the highest cybersecurity protection standards in the industry.

     The STM32H7 MCU features the highest performance Arm® Cortex-M core (Cortex-M7 with a maximum operating frequency of 600MHz) to date from ST, integrates the smallest on-chip memory and high-speed external interfaces, giving engineers access to simple, low-cost microcontroller development tools. Develop systems with higher performance and flexibility. The existing products are further subdivided into two product lines: the STM32H7R3/S3 Universal MCU and the STM32H7R7/S7 with enhanced graphics processing capabilities. Developers can fully share software between the two products, efficiently utilize project resources, and accelerate new products to market.

     Michela Menting, senior Research director at ABI Research, said: "iot hardware security is an eternal goal that developers pursue when building trusted devices. The challenge is to bring high security to MCU embedded hardware, achieve MPU level processing performance, and guarantee excellent cost efficiency, all three criteria that are often not met in the market at the same time. The new STM32H7 MCU seems to have this quality, putting security front and center to meet the pressing privacy and security requirements of multiple applications in consumer electronics and industry."