Ambiq Micro today announced that its Apollo MCU, which recently made microcontroller history by demonstrating that it consumes less than half the energy of rivals in real-world applications according to the EEMBC ULPBench benchmark, is now available for shipping into high volume consumer applications such as wireless sensors, smart meters and various battery-powered devices.
The Ambiq Micro Apollo MCU features active mode current in the order of 34microA/MHz when running from flash and sleep mode current less than 150nA. Built around an ARM M4 core with a floating point unit, the device is available with a range of memory options from 64kB to 512kB of embedded flash memory, includes a 10-bit ADC, and has a wide range of serial interfaces.
These highly-integrated microcontrollers offer industry-leading power numbers in BOTH active modes and sleep modes. Additionally, they offer the performance of an ARM Cortex-M4F core at power levels that are even lower than competing ARM Cortex-M0+ solutions. Unrivaled power savings combined with a high-performance processing engine make the Apollo MCUs an ideal solution for battery-powered devices and other power-sensitive applications.
Features include: Ultra-low active mode power consumption, 30µA/MHz (executing from Flash); Ultra-low sleep mode power consumption, 100nA (with RTC on); High-performance, 32-bit ARM Cortex-M4F processor, Up to 24MHz clock frequency, Floating point unit, Wake-up interrupt controller with 12 interrupts; Ultra-low power memory, Up to 512kB Flash, Up to 64kB low-leakage RAM; Ultra-low power interface for off-chip sensors, 10-bit, 13-channel, 1MS/s ADC, Temperature sensor with ±2 degrees C accuracy; Rich set of timing peripherals; Flexible serial peripherals, I2C/SPI master for communication with external peripherals, I2C/SPI slave for optional host communications, UART for communication with peripherals and legacy devices; Wide operating range: 1.8 to 3.8V; Compact package options, 64-pin BGA with 50 GPIO and 42-pin CSP with 28 GPIO.
