Qualcomm Buys Arduino

For memory, UNO Q’s MCU has 2-MB flash memory with ECC, arranged in two banks to facilitate read-while-write, and includes 512 kB with 100 kcycles of write lifetime. The MCU also packs 786-kB SRAM with ECC OFF or 722-kB SRAM, including up to 322-kB SRAM with ECC ON.

In addition, the STM32 has an external memory interface that supports SRAM, PSRAM, NOR, NAND, and FRAM memories and up to two Octo-SPI memory interfaces.

Of concern to any legacy Arduino UNO aficionado, the MCU has up to 136 fast I/Os with interrupt capability, most of which are 5 V tolerant, and up to 14 I/Os with independent supply down to 1.08 V. How these are connected to the UNO-family connector footprint is not available at the time of this writing.

Each of the MCU’s GPIO pins can be configured by software as output (push-pull or open-drain), as input (with or without pull-up or pull-down), or as peripheral alternate function. Most of the GPIO pins are shared with digital or analog alternate functions.

After reset, all GPIOs are in analog mode to reduce power consumption. The I/Os alternate function configuration can be locked if needed following a specific sequence to avoid spurious writing to the I/Os registers.

Given the presence of the 8×13 Blue LED Matrix on the UNO Q board, the GPIO clearly has sufficient source/sink capability for that task. All I/Os are CMOS- and TTL-compliant (no software configuration required). Their characteristics cover more than the strict CMOS or TTL parameters.

Regarding timers, the MCU features two 16-bit advanced motor-control timers; four 32-bit, five 16-bit, four low-power 16-bit (available in Stop mode), two SysTick, and two watchdog timers. A real-time clock (RTC) is available on chip with hardware calendar and calibration.

Worthy of note is an integrated CAN FD controller, two SDMMC interfaces, and a multifunction digital filter (six filters). An audio digital filter with sound-activity detection and a parallel synchronous slave interface (PSSI) is embedded in silicon. The MCU's 16- and 4-channel DMA controllers are also functional in Stop mode.

On the graphics display side, a Chrom-ART Accelerator (DMA2D) has been integrated for enhanced graphic content creation. Video input is supported with a digital camera interface mathematical coprocessor.

For real-time inverse kinematics computations, as found in robotics applications, or for motor control, metering, signal processing, and many other applications, a CORDIC co-processor provides hardware acceleration of certain mathematical functions, notably trigonometric. This speeds up the calculation of these functions compared to a software implementation.

The STM32’s filter mathematical accelerator (FMAC) performs arithmetic operations on vectors. It comprises a MAC (multiplier/accumulator) unit, together with address generation logic that allows it to index vector elements held in local memory. The unit includes support for circular buffers on input and output that makes it possible to implement digital filters; both finite and infinite impulse response filters can be done.

On the analog side, up to 22 capacitive sensing channels support touch key, linear, and rotary touch sensors.

Rich analog peripherals, with an independent analog power supply, include:

• 14-bit ADC 2.5-MSPS with hardware oversampling
• 12-bit ADC 2.5-MSPS, with hardware oversampling, autonomous in Stop 2 mode
• Two 12-bit DACs, low-power sample and hold
• Two operational amplifiers with built-in PGA
• Two ultra-low-power comparators

The MCU runs a real-time operating system (RTOS) with Arduino Core on a Zephyr OS.

Microprocessor Unit

The new added capability of the Arduino UNO Q is largely due to the presence of a second processing unit, the Qualcomm Dragonwing QRB2210 (Fig. 5), which provides AI acceleration, a quad-core CPU, an Adreno GPU, and dual ISP support.