AnalogLamb Announces RISC-V Polos Development Boards, Starting at Just $1.99
Low-cost microcontroller boards include a range of features, with a top-end $4.99 version including floating-point unit and a CAN bus.
Beijing-based embedded hardware specialist AnalogLamb has announced three new low-cost entries in its Polos family of development boards, all powered by RISC-V microcontrollers from WCH Electronics — and with prices starting at $1.99.
"Polos CH32Vxx RISC-V Breakout Boards are interconnectivity MCU [Microcontroller Unit] boards based on 32-bit RISC-V core," AnalogLamb explains in its product announcement, brought to our attention by Linux Gizmos, "with hardware stack area and fast interrupt entry. Compared with standard RISC-V, the interrupt response speed is greatly improved."
The lowest-cost model in the family, at just $1.99, is the Polos CH32V003 Breakout Alef, using a 32-bit RISC-V processor core running at up to 48MHz and with 2kB of static RAM (SRAM) and 16kB of flash. It offers a single direct-memory access (DMA) channel, one op-amp, one 10-bit analog to digital converter (ADC), two 16-bit timers, USART, I2C, SPI buses, and 18 general-purpose input/output (GPIO) pins.
The Polos CH32V203F8 Breakout Alef, priced at $3.49, sits in the middle of the range with a more powerful processor running at up to 144MHz, 20kB of SRAM, and 64kB of flash. The board offers 18 DMA channels, two op-amps, two nine-channel 12-bit ADCs, two USART, one I2C, and one SPI bus, USB 2.0 Full Speed Host and Device connectivity, and 17 GPIO pins.
Finally, the Polos CH32V305 Breakout Alef uses a still-more-powerful chip, still running at up to 144MHz but with the addition of a hardware floating-point unit, a more generous 32kB of SRAM, and 128kB of flash. This top-end board, at a still-affordable $4.99, has two nine-channel DMA controllers, a single 12-bit digital-to-analog converter (DAC), two 12-bit ADCs, two USART, one I2C, one SPI, and one CAN bus, a touch-sensitive key input, eight timers, and 17 GPIO ports.
All boards are expected to begin shipping at the end of the month, AnalogLamb says, with more information and pre-orders available on the company's web store.