Portenta C33, a cost-effective, high-performance IoT System-On-Module

Portenta C33 is the latest addition to Arduino's Portenta family, which is specifically designed to provide a complete and scalable platform for IoT edge devices. Portenta C33 offers a powerful microcontroller, connectivity, and security at a convenient price point, making it ideal for a vast range of applications, such as Edge AI devices, IoT gateways, remote control systems, fleet management, and process tracking.

Portenta C33 provides professional developers with a production ready IoT platform combining the familiar Arduino environment with other high-level languages like MicroPython. The module integrates Wi-Fi and Bluetooth Low Energy connectivity alongside with a wide variety of peripheral interfaces, including CAN, SAI, SPI, and I2C. Furthermore, the RA6M5’s integrated Secure Crypto Engine 9 (SCE9) with secure key storage ensures industrial-grade security at the hardware level and the ability to perform over-the-air firmware updates with Arduino IoT Cloud or other third-party services.

The new module’s form factor is compatible with Portenta and MKR ranges and features castellated pins – friendly for automated SMT assembly on application-specific carrier boards.

“We are committed to making Industrial IoT more accessible for a wide range of applications. Being part of the robust Arduino ecosystem is an important step toward achieving that goal,” said Chris Allexandre, Senior Vice President, CSMO and Head of the Global Sales and Marketing Unit at Renesas. “The SCE9 security on the Renesas devices has been certified according to CAVP, in conjunction with the existing SESIP1 and PSA Certified Level 2, which is ideal for the intended IoT environment.”

"We are excited to launch Portenta C33, which combines the power and efficiency of the Arm Cortex M33 with the flexibility and ease of use of the Arduino ecosystem made of thousands of libraries and tools to support a vast array of applications," said Fabio Violante, CEO at Arduino. "This new system-on-module will bridge the gap between prototyping and deployment at scale, reducing the time to market by orders of magnitude. The cost-effective nature of this product unleashes a tremendous opportunity for IoT customers.”

Portenta C33 can be at the heart of industrial IoT gateways, connecting devices, machines, and sensors to collect operation data in real-time, and display them on a custom Arduino IoT Cloud dashboard or third-party cloud platforms with end-to-end secure data encryption. This is also offered by the embedded RA6M5 with Arm TrustZone and Renesas’ certified SCE9. For example, data on overall equipment efficiency (OEE) and overall process effectiveness (OPE) can be tracked, monitored and processed; or smart systems can detect anomalies, alert operators about unplanned downtimes, or provide the information for predictive maintenance that ultimately improves production rates. Portenta C33 can also be easily paired with Nicla modules’ smart sensors, to carry out quality assurance controls right on the production line, catching any defects as early as possible.

In factories, offices, and residential buildings, Portenta C33 can be deployed to monitor gas, water, electricity, and any other utility consumption through a single system. Data can be collected, displayed, and processed to pinpoint usage trends in Arduino IoT Cloud charts, providing an overall image for energy management optimisation and cost reduction.

To see Portenta C33 before anyone else, visit Arduino Pro at tinyML Foundation’s booth 2-238 and at Renesas’ booth 3A-125 at Embedded World, Nuremberg, 14^th to 16^th March 2023.