In an interview on the sidelines of the electronica India 2022, Vinay Thapliyal, Group Manager – Technical Marketing, STMicroelectronics, spoke about STM32 ecosystem and how ST allows customer to build and turn IoT ideas into reality with ease.
Edited excerpts:
TimesTech: What are the products that STMicroelectronics is showcasing at this Expo?
STMicroelectronics: We are showcasing STM32 ecosystem, which has been evolved over years for the developers to start the quick development.
It is called STM32 Open Development environment (STM32 ODE) which is an open, flexible, easy and affordable way to develop innovative devices and applications based on the STM32 32-bit microcontroller family combined with other state-of-the-art ST components connected via expansion boards. It enables fast prototyping with leading-edge components that can quickly be transformed into final designs.
The STM32 ODE includes the following five elements:
- STM32 Nucleo development boards. You can see here A comprehensive range of affordable development boards for all STM32 microcontroller series, with unlimited unified expansion capability, and with integrated debugger/programmer
- STM32 Nucleo expansion boards. Boards with additional functionality to add sensing, control, connectivity, power, audio or other functions as needed. The expansion boards are plugged on top of the STM32 Nucleo development boards. More complex functionalities can be achieved by stacking additional expansion boards
- STM32Cube software. A set of free-of-charge tools and embedded software bricks to enable fast and easy development on the STM32, including a Hardware Abstraction Layer, middleware and the STM32CubeMX PC-based configurator and code generator
- STM32Cube expansion software. Expansion software provided free of charge for use with STM32 Nucleo expansion boards, and compatible with the STM32Cube software framework
- STM32 ODE Function Packs. Set of function examples for some of the most common application cases built by leveraging the modularity and interoperability of STM32 Nucleo development boards and expansions, with STM32Cube software and expansions.
TimesTech: What are the key features of these board which separates ST’s boards from its competitors?
STMicroelectronics: It is the ease of integration. Once the developer picks any board, he gets seamlessly all the software packages through which he can quickly start the development. Second, ST has also enhanced a lot of documentation around it. We have now got massive video tutorials (MOOC) on our website. We have also now specific space inside our website called STM32 MCU Developer Zone. A customer or developer can get all details at the click of a few buttons. https://www.st.com/content/st_com/en/stm32-mcu-developer-zone.html
TimesTech: How secure are these devices from Cyberattacks?
STMicroelectronics: Devices have got specific security needs that are embedded inside the microcontrollers now. Just to provide details on one such device, we have recently launched STM32U5 MCU.
It has Arm Cortex-M33 core that incorporates Arm’s TrustZone technology and an ST-specific security feature set, the STM32U5 series introduces state-of-the-art innovations:
- AES encryption and Public Key Accelerator (PKA) are now side-channel hardware-resistant
- Secure data storage with a Hardware Unique Key (HUK)
- Active tamper detection. Internal monitoring, that can erase secret data in the event of perturbation attacks, helps meet the PCI Security Standards Council (PCI SSC) requirements for Point Of Sales (POS) applications.
- PSA Certified level 3 and SESIP (Security Evaluation Standard for IoT Platforms) level 3 certified
TimesTech: Which architecture is being used by ST in its microcontrollers?
STMicroelectronics: The STM32 family of 32-bit microcontrollers based on the Arm Cortex-M processor is designed to offer new degrees of freedom to MCU users. It offers products combining very high performance, real-time capabilities, digital signal processing, low-power / low-voltage operation, and connectivity, while maintaining full integration and ease of development.
The unparalleled range of STM32 microcontrollers, based on an industry-standard core, comes with a vast choice of tools and software to support project development, making this family of products ideal for both small projects and end-to-end platforms.
