Ambiq adds always-on AI to low power microcontrollers
Ambiq has launched a family of low power microcontrollers for always on edge AI using its sub-threshold technology.
The Apollo330 system on chip (SoC) family, showa at the Embedded World exhibition in Nuremberg this week, has a 250MHz ARM Cortex-M55 core with a 30x improvement in energy efficiency by using the sub-threshold technology.
A low power 1bit pulse density modulation (PDM) block supports a digital microphone for truly always-on voice for edge AI.
The family consists of the base Apollo330 Plus, the Apollo330B Plus, and the Apollo330M Plus with a range of peripherals and connectivity options for healthcare, smart homes and buildings, industrial edge applications.
The M55 application processor uses the Ambiq turboSPOT technology that XXX and ARM Helium instructions, as well as a 48/96 MHz ARM Cortex-M4F network processor for Bluetooth Low Energy and a multi-protocol radio in the wireless versions.
The Apollo330 Plus series is purpose-built to enable always-on and real-time AI inferencing on devices.
The Apollo330 Plus architecture processes up to 8 MACs per cycle with the Helium AI instructions with 2MB of on-chip system RAM, 2MB of embedded non-volatile memory, a large 32kB I-cache and 32kB D-cache on a wide bus.
The Apollo330 Plus base model without wireless connectivity offers a rich set of peripherals for wearables, medical/healthcare, and smart home, empowering developers to create sophisticated sensor-based applications easily.
The Apollo330B Plus adds a Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) front end from Ceva with connected peripherals and audio applications
The Apollo330M Plus adds multi-protocol radio support for IEEE 802.15.4, Thread, and Matter, enabling low-power interoperability mesh networking in smart home, smart meter, and industrial edge applications.
“While today’s smart devices rely heavily on power-hungry cloud computing, the Apollo330 Plus series creates a brand-new opportunity by enabling true edge AI processing,” says Fumihide Esaka, CEO of Ambiq. “This empowers manufacturers to create longer-lasting, more responsive, intelligent devices for homes, offices, and factories.”
“With a growing number of new and compelling edge AI applications emerging across markets including industrial and smart home, enabling ultra-low-power AI processing directly at the edge will be transformative,” said Laurence Bryant, VP segment marketing, IoT Line of Business at Arm. “With this new solution, built on Arm, Ambiq is paving the way for smarter, more efficient devices that can deliver real-time intelligence across a wide range of use cases.”
The secureSPOT 3.0 element in the devices uses ARM TrustZone to ensure the integrity and confidentiality of data transmitted and processed by connected devices. With hardware-based security mechanisms, such as secure boot and secure firmware updates, these SoCs provide robust protection against unauthorized access and malicious attacks, enabling secure deployment in various applications.
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