SparkFun Launches a New MicroMod Processor Board Built on STMicro's STM32WB5MMG Chip
Dropping straight into any MicroMod Carrier Board, this new Processor Board packs in the features — though it doesn't include Wi-Fi.
SparkFun has grown its MicroMod ecosystem once again, launching a new MicroMod Processor Board which features STMicroelectronics' low-power dual-processor STM32WB5MMG system-on-chip with Bluetooth 5.3 Low Energy (BLE) and Zigbee/Thread connectivity.
"The MicroMod STM32WB5MMG Processor expands on SparkFun's MicroMod ST product line with a powerful combination of computing and wireless capabilities on one M.2-connectable processor," says SparkFun's Chris McCarty of the latest MicroMod part. "This is a much improved version of the STM32 processor that should make an excellent new addition to the MicroMod product line."
Launched three years ago, SparkFun's MicroMod ecosystem aims to take the waste out of electronics prototyping: rather than buying an entire all-in-one development board then discarding it when something more powerful or otherwise better-suited to a given project becomes available, the MicroMod concept sees you pairing Processor Boards with Carrier Boards to build your own devices — then simply dropping in a new Processor Board or switching to a different Carrier Board as required.
The STMicro STM32WB5MMG on the new MicroMod Processor Board features two heterogeneous processors: an Arm Cortex-M4 CPU with floating-point unit, Adaptive Real-Time (ART) accelerator for zero-wait-state execution from flash memory, and a clock frequency up to 64MHz, and a separate Arm Cortex-M0+ CPU running at 32MHz and designed to drive the 2.4GHz radio and security peripherals. The radio itself offers Bluetooth 5.3 Low Energy (BLE) and IEEE 802.15.4-2011 Zigbee/Thread support — but not, it must be noted, Wi-Fi support.
There's 256kB of static RAM (SRAM) on the chip, along with 1MB of flash memory for program storage — with that ART acceleration for improved performance. It's the microcontroller's impressive low-power credentials that stand out in the spec sheet, though: STMicro claims power draws of 4.5mA receiving and 5.2mA transmitting with the radio at 0dBm, 600nA in standby and stop, and just 13nA in shutdown mode.
The MicroMod Processor Board module, meanwhile, makes available two UART buses, one of which is operable in low-power mode, two I2C buses, one SPI bus, one I2S bus, a 16-bit advanced four-channel timer, two dedicated analog inputs, two pulse-width modulation (PWM) outputs shared with the timer pins, and eight general-purpose input/output (GPIO) pins. As a MicroMod module, it's naturally compatible with any of SparkFun's MicroMod Carrier Boards.
The SparkFun MicroMod STM32WB5MMG Processor Board is now available on the company's web store at $19.95 before volume pricing; those who have not yet bought into the MicroMod ecosystem will also need a carrier board, starting at $14.95.