STMicroelectronics picks Macronix OctaFlash for MCU platforms

Macronix’s MX25UW1G45G high-performance memory is embedded into selected STM32H7R/S Discovery Kits and Evaluation Boards, enabling these high-end products to feature a graphical user experience that simulates 3D-like GUIs and animations for industrial, smart home, and medical applications.

“Through our years-long partnership with Macronix, we ensure the flash memory selected for our MCU platforms meets our key criteria: performance, density, and reliability,” remarked Daniel Colonna, Marketing Director of the General Purpose Microcontrollers Division at ST. “Adhering to these criteria, we selected the high-density and high-performance MX25UW1G45G in Macronix’s OctaFlash for our STM32H7R/S platform because this flash memory perfectly complements our microcontroller in demanding applications such as 3D graphics.”

“Macronix boasts a rich history of collaboration with ST in development platforms that enable designers to rapidly and efficiently develop products featuring high-performance MCUs and industry-leading flash memory,” stated F.L. Ni, Vice President of Marketing at Macronix. “The inclusion of our OctaFlash memory in the STM32H7R/S platform reflects our mutual commitment to meeting designers’ needs for performance and cost efficiency across a broad spectrum of markets.”

The advanced STM32H7R/S devices incorporate one Hexa-SPI and one Octal-SPI ports supporting the OctaBus™ interface, which comprises Macronix’s OctaFlash 8 I/O NOR and OctaRAM memories. OctaBus memory devices have been designed to meet current and emerging trends of demanding applications requiring extremely high performance, reliability, and an enhanced user experience.

The MX25UM/UW OctaFlash memories meet the growing demand for "instant-on" performance and real-time system responsiveness for external memories in automotive, industrial, and consumer applications. The ultra-high-performance OctaBus memory products can operate up to a frequency of 250MHz with 500MB/s read throughput, potentially the industry’s fastest. These memory devices enable system architects to address customer demands, equipped with a rich graphical user interface and achieving ultra-fast response times.

The MX25LW/UW OctaBus memory family boasts exceptional features for efficient management of over-the-air (OTA) software updates and data logging. These features also naturally extend the execute-in-place (XIP) memory functionality for STM32 MCUs. With densities up to 2Gb, OctaBus memory can support the most advanced graphical user interfaces that leverage the graphic accelerator embedded in STM32H7R/S.

The Arm Cortex-M7-based STM32H7 MCU series utilises ST’s NVM technology to achieve the industry’s highest benchmark scores for Cortex-M-based microcontrollers. The STM32H7R/S family of 32-bit microcontrollers is designed to provide new degrees of freedom to MCU users, combining very high performance, real-time capabilities, digital signal processing, low-power and low-voltage operation, and connectivity, while maintaining full integration and ease of development.