Dialog Semiconductor is kicking off the new year with our most advanced line of Bluetooth® Low Energy SoCs: the SmartBond DA1469x. This new product family, which spans four distinct variants, builds on the foundation laid by our previous SmartBond products, but now boasts even greater processing power, resources, range and battery life, thanks to an innovative multi-core microcontroller architecture.
Long story short: the SmartBond DA1469x products mark Dialog’s most advanced and feature-packed family of Bluetooth low energy products yet, perfectly suited to the needs and demands of tomorrow’s users.
At the heart of the DA1469x line are three integrated cores, carefully chosen for their capability to sense, process and communicate on connected devices. Let’s dive into what those three cores are, and how they form the central pillars of the DA1469x.
SENSE: Sensor Node Controller
Backing this sensing capability is the DA1469x’s Sensor Node Controller (SNC). The SNC is based on a programmable micro-DSP that runs autonomously and processes data collected by the sensors connected to its digital and analog interfaces. This is performed independently from the rest of the processors, only waking the application processor when necessary.
PROCESS: Arm® Cortex®-M33
Powering the DA1469x’s processing ability is a dedicated application processor based on the Arm Cortex-M33, making it the first-ever wireless microcontroller in production to be based on the M33. The M33 utilizes DSP extensions – alongside other optional features, like a memory protection unit and a floating-point unit – to provide developers with flexibility and extensibility options for decreasing overall power consumption for intensive applications. With the M33, developers can count on a greater reservoir of processing power to draw from in order to fuel those more intensive applications, including VR game controllers, sophisticated smart home devices and top-of-the-line fitness trackers.
COMMUNICATE: Arm Cortex-M0+
The DA1469x line empowers developers to futureproof their devices by deploying angle of arrival and angle of departure, for localization and positioning. This capability is complemented by Bluetooth Low Energy’s low-power consumption rate. Additionally, a new integrated radio doubles the connectivity range of previous Dialog products, and a software-based, programmable packet engine backed by an Arm Cortex-M0+ provides developers with the latest Bluetooth Low Energy (LE) capabilities and enables proprietary protocols.
Opening the door to even more possibilities
Beyond just the core sense, process and communicate functions, the DA1469x line also boasts a long list of additional benefits and upgrades over previous Bluetooth low energy products, to ensure a wide range of cutting-edge smart device applications and extended functionalities.
- A Power Management Unit (PMU) that generates energy savings by only activating the DA1469x’s processing cores as needed, improving overall battery life
- Three PMU-provided regulated power rails and one LDO output to supply external system components, precluding the need for a separate external power management IC (PMIC) and reducing overall system size and the bill of materials
- A JEITA-compliant built-in charger for rechargeable batteries, giving designers greater space and cost savings for applications that require a lithium-ion or lithium-polymer battery
- A range of new interfaces, to complement the traditional dialog and analog MCU interfaces, including: a display driver, audio interface, high-accuracy ADC, ERM and LRA motor-driving haptics driver and an autonomous programmable stepping motor controller
- Better localization features that enable new opportunities for devices designed for accurate indoor positioning (e.g. building access or remote keyless entry)
- Up to 144 DMIPS and up to 512 kBytes of RAM
- Expandable memories for both code and data through QSPI Flash and QSPI RAM interfaces
- A dedicated crypto engine for end-to-end security
- Efficient connections to other devices via standard interfaces
At the end of the day, the driving mission behind the SmartBond DA1469x family of wireless microcontrollers and its multi-core architecture is to not only meet the needs of today’s users, but also move in the direction of where tomorrow’s users will be. In this way, Dialog and the DA1469x – with its doubled processing power, doubled battery life and quadrupled resource allocations – are giving developers our most advanced, feature-rich products yet, offering development opportunities for many future product cycles ahead.
The DA1469x product family is available now for sampling and production orders. Want to get an advance, hands-on look? Come meet us at one of the many cities we’ll be visiting around the world during our SmartBond Wireless Microcontroller Technology Tour. See you there!