secure data and program storage, hardware encryption engine,
and secure boot. It also contains Microchip’s QSPI NOR flash
memory, a power management IC, an Ethernet PHY, and serial
EEPROM memory with MAC address, expanding design
options.
All of Microchip’s Linux development codes for the SA-
MA5D2 SiP and SOM are mainlined in the Linux communi-
ties, so customers can connect external devices with minimal
software development. The SOM1-EK1 development board
provides an evaluation platform for both the SOM and the SiP.NORDIC
SEMICONDUCTOR
nRF52840 Bluetooth Low
Energy System-on-Chip
http://www.nordicsemi.com
Nordic Semiconductor’s
nRF52840 Bluetooth Low
Energy (BLE) System-on-Chip
(SoC) — the high-end variant
of Nordic’s nRF52 Series of
high-performance Bluetooth 5-certified SoCs — brings a pro-
duction-ready, multiprotocol wireless IoT solution to market
with full Bluetooth 5 support and support for Bluetooth mesh
and Thread.
The SoC offers the capabilities and flexibility to support a
broad range of networked, connected products for wearables,
gaming, VR/AR, and home and industrial IoT applications
thanks to a wide range of features and peripherals.
The high-end nRF52840 SoC, based on Nordic’s proven
nRF52 Series architecture, is the first single-chip solution to
bring all of the benefits of Bluetooth 5 to the market. The key
advantages of Bluetooth 5 compared with previous implemen-
tations of the BLE specification include: 2× on-air raw data
bandwidth (2 Mb/s); 4× range; 8× broadcasting ability with
advertising extensions that increase the advertising packet
payload size to 251 bytes; and an improved channel coexistence
algorithm.
The nRF52840 SoC uses a 64-MHz, 32-bit Arm Cortex M4F
processor, floating point, and DSP performance to meet the
demands of challenging wireless applications. The SoC can also
operate from power supplies above 5 V, such as rechargeable
battery power sources.
Other features include a new radio architecture with a +8-
dBm on-chip PA, 1-MB flash and 256-kB RAM, IEEE 802.15.4
(including Thread), ANT, Zigbee, and proprietary 2.4-GHz
wireless technologies; a full-speed USB 2.0 controller; and a
host of peripherals including a quad-SPI interface. In terms
of security, the SoC incorporates an Arm CryptoCell-310
cryptographic accelerator. Extensive crypto-ciphers and key
generation and storage options are also available.
The nRF52840 SoC is the only multiprotocol device on
the market today to offer concurrent Bluetooth 5 and Threadsupport, according to the company. The capability is enabled
by the SoC’s BLE and Thread “Dynamic Multiprotocol” feature,
which allows simultaneous support of the S140 SoftDevice and
OpenThread RF protocol stack.
Nordic released the S140 SoftDevice (Nordic’s latest RF
Bluetooth 5-certified protocol software, or “stack”), and a new
version of Nordic’s nRF5 Software Development Kit (SDK),
a production-ready development tool with full peripheral
driver support for the nRF52840 SoC. For developers building
Bluetooth mesh applications, the nRF52840 is supported by the
production-grade nRF5 SDK for Mesh.RENESAS
RZ/A2M Microprocessor
http://www.renesas.com
The Renesas RZ/A2M microprocessor is designed for
embedded AI-based imaging in smart appliances, service
robots, and industrial machinery that require high-speed
image processing. It features a unique hybrid approach to
image recognition or machine vision by combining the
company’s proprietary dynamically reconfigurable pro-
cessor (DRP) technology for fast pre-processing of image
data closely coupled to an Arm Cortex-A9 CPU with large
on-chip RAM for AI inferencing. The upshot: The RZ/A2M
MPU delivers real-time image processing at low power con-
sumption to provide 10× the image-processing performance
of its predecessor, the RZ/A1.
The RZ/A2M MPU also features 4 MB of on-chip RAM,
which eliminates the need for external DRAM, and a MIPI
camera interface, which is widely used in mobile devices.
Other key features include two-channel Ethernet support for
enhanced network functionality and an on-chip hardware
encryption accelerator for enhanced secure functionality.
Peripherals include a Hyperbus interface, new 2D GPU,
sprite engine, image correction, full security suite based on
TSIP security and TrustZone, true random number genera-
tor, OTP, and CAN-FD.
There are several challenges to using AI in the operation-
al technology (OT) field, including the difficulty in transfer-
ring large amounts of sensor data to the cloud for processing
and delays waiting for AI judgments to be transferred back
from the cloud, said Renesas. The RZ/A2M with DRP makes
possible image-based AI functionality that requires largerJANUARY 2019 • electronicproducts.com • ELECTRONIC PRODUCTS
22 COVER STORY 43rd Annual Product of the Year Awards