You might have been busy last year and unable to keep up with the news of Electronics for 2024. I’ve tried to brainstorm and gather the most important updates from 2024.
Espressif: Two Key New MCUs
Espressif, the well-known company, released its first general-purpose microcontroller, the ESP32-P4, which does not include wireless connectivity, unlike its other microcontrollers that feature either Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or both. The announcement of the ESP32-P4 was made in 2023, but it became widely available only in 2024, along with the release of the official development board. This microcontroller is a dual-core RISC-V with a high frequency of 200 MHz and a low-frequency single core running at 40 MHz, offering rich peripheral support. Another new release is the ESP32-H4, a dual-core RISC-V microcontroller running at 96 MHz and supporting Bluetooth 5.4. It appears that Espressif will not be using the Xtensa processor in its future microcontrollers. The company also released the ESP32-C61, a single-core RISC-V microcontroller running at 160 MHz with Bluetooth and Wi-Fi support.
MBED EOL and Arduino Adapt Zephyr
In other important news, ARM announced its official cessation of development for its real-time operating system, Mbed, which has been widely used, especially by Arduino in many development boards utilizing ARM Cortex processors. It seems that Arduino had plans to replace Mbed with the increasingly popular Zephyr real-time operating system. ZephyrOS is an open-source real-time system with no main company backing its development.
While Intel is the main designer of the Zephyr operating system and many of its employees continue to manage its development and releases, unlike MbedOS, Intel does not officially back Zephyr. Therefore, there is no risk of a company withdrawing from its development. Zephyr operates similarly to a Linux-based operating system and shares a similar structural design. One of the most significant updates related to Zephyr OS is the announcement by Samsung that its smart ring, the Galaxy Ring, uses Zephyr. This is the first product to officially declare the use of the Zephyr operating system.
Arduino: Modulino and the new port
As for Arduino, the company announced a new series of small boards called Modulino, which adopts the Arduino UNO R4 along with a Qwiic port from SparkFun for connecting boards together. The company also launched the Plug and Make Kit to promote its new approach to expanding circuits, moving away from the long-standing use of Shields for expanding development boards.
Raspberry Pi’s new MCU with dual RISC-V cores
Raspberry Pi launched the second version of its microcontroller series, the RP2350, with the Raspberry Pi Pico 2 development board. The RP2350 features two RISC-V cores running at 150 MHz and two ARM Cortex-M33 cores, whereas the previous RP2040 series contained only two Cortex-M0 cores.
New nRF54L Series
The Norwegian company Nordic Semiconductors, specialized in microcontrollers with wireless communication protocols, has launched the nRF54L series of microcontrollers: the nRF54L15, nRF54L10, and nRF54L05. These microcontrollers feature an updated radio section and are guaranteed to be compatible with Bluetooth 6.0. They include a Cortex-M33 processor running at 128 MHz, with up to 1.5 MB of internal flash memory, and most importantly, they have a compact size using a WLCSP package with dimensions of approximately 2mm by 2mm. Developers are still awaiting the promised nRF54H20 from the company, which is expected to be a high-performance microcontroller with a Cortex®-M33 core running at 320 MHz and supporting RISC-V auxiliary cores.
