A leader in power efficient Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (AI/ML) microcontrollers (MCUs) and fusion processors, Alif Semiconductor now offers an evaluation board for its new Balletto wireless microcontrollers. This MCU family gives manufacturers the opportunity to implement sophisticated AI/ML functions such as natural language speech recognition, AI noise cancellation, key word spotting, and audio beamforming in true wireless stereo (TWS) earbuds, and sensor fusion ML models in wearable devices and other types of space-constrained devices.
The Balletto B1 wireless MCU combines a powerful 160MHz Arm Cortex-M55 CPU core with Helium vector processing extension for fast and power efficient signal processing, an Arm Ethos-U55 NPU, a Bluetooth Low Energy and 802.15.4 radio, and rich digital and analog capabilities in BGA or CSP package options.
The Alif Balletto MCU family offers particularly strong performance in audio and sensor functions thanks to its excellent DSP and AI/ML capabilities and large on-die memory. The device's Arm Cortex-M55 core, which achieves an EEMBC CoreMark score of 704 at 160MHz, includes the Arm Helium M-profile vector extension (MVE), providing a 500% improvement in DSP performance.
Alongside the Cortex-M55 CPU, the Arm Ethos-U55 Neural Processing Unit (NPU) can perform up to 46 GOPS and is backed by a large 2MB tightly coupled memory (TCM), extending the audio capabilities with hardware acceleration of AI/ML models. Neural network processing performance is up to 15x better than a Cortex-M4 processor can achieve. This produces outstanding results in audio encoding/decoding functions, including for the high-bit rate, low-latency LC3 codec which underpins the BLE Auracast broadcast audio technology.
Alif Semiconductor also integrated its aiPM technology, which can dynamically power only the logic and associated memory that are in use at any given time, thus achieving the lowest overall system power consumption. The aiPM power management unit implements four system level power modes including a Stop mode which draws just 700nA.
Thanks to its own separate processor and memory, Balletto's radio supports concurrent Bluetooth LE 5.3 and Thread operations via a single on-chip antenna, making it ideal for use in home automation networks and systems that support the Matter protocol. In addition, exceptional receive sensitivity of -101dBm and advanced algorithms help with interference avoidance from other devices, and coexistence with the other protocols sharing the 2.4GHz frequency band.
The Balletto MCU also has a dual-PA architecture: a high-power amplifier (HPA) provides a +10dBm output for maximum range and signal strength; via the low-power amplifier (LPA), output is +4dBm for optimized power consumption. And the family includes the state-of-the-art multi-layered security fabric first introduced in Alif Semiconductors' Ensemble family of MCUs and fusion processors. It is governed by an advanced secure enclave with its own dedicated processor and memory providing hardware root of trust and chain of custody.
Other key features of the Balletto B1 device now integrated in the new DK-B1 development kit include digital interfaces including I3C, USB-HS (480Mbps), and twin CAN-FD channels, plus an analog front end with high-precision ADCs, including a 24-bit Sigma-Delta, DAC. There's up to 2MB of high-speed MRAM and 2MB of zero-wait state SRAM, octal SPI interface, up to 77 GPIOs including I/Os for audio input/output, a camera and MIPI display interfaces, 2D GPU, and sensor hub functionalities.
The solution now available, is the only wireless microcontroller platform which can provide meaningful AI capability with the small form factor and low-power operation required in endpoint devices. "Alif Semiconductor's Balletto family is targeting BLE challenges faced by the wireless audio and smart home industry today with a platform adapted to high bit-rate audio and the Matter ecosystem," says Reza Kazerounian, President and Co-Founder of Alif Semiconductor. "With the launch of multiprotocol support, coupled with our industry leading AI/ML powered MCU, it has never been easier to build battery life-friendly connected intelligent edge devices."
Visitors to the Alif booth B4.106 at Electronica (Munich, Germany, 12-15 November 2024) can see demonstrations of the development kit for the Balletto B1 products.
www.alifsemi.com
