Infineon unveils next-gen PSOC Edge MCUs

Infineon Technologies AG has launched its next-generation of PSOC Edge microcontrollers (MCU) for a range of machine learning (ML) applications, first introduced in November 2023 for ML at the edge.The three new series of PSOC Edge MCUs—E81, E83 and E84—offer a range of performance, features and memory options for ML-enabled IoT, consumer and industrial applications. The PSOC Edge E8 series devices come with a complete set of system design tools and software.

The PSOC Edge E8x MCUs are based on the high-performance Arm Cortex-M55, including Helium DSP support paired with Arm Ethos-U55 and Cortex-M33 paired with Infineon’s ultra-low power NNLite, a proprietary hardware accelerator for neural networks. All three series support extensive peripheral sets, on-chip memory and hardware security with a variety of connectivity options including USB HS/FS with PHY CAN, Ethernet, Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth, Bluetooth Low Energy (LE) and Matter.

(Source: Infineon Technologies Inc.)

The PSOC Edge E81 uses the ARM Helium DSP technology along with the Infineon NNLite Neural Network (NN) accelerator. The PSOC Edge E83 and E84 include the Arm Ethos-U55 micro-NPU processor, which provides a 480× improvement in ML performance compared to existing Cortex-M systems, according to Infineon, and they support the Infineon NNlite neural network accelerator for ML applications in the low-power compute domain.

Target applications for the PSOC Edge E8x series include human machine interface (HMI) in appliances and industrial devices, smart home and security systems, robotics and wearables. All three series support voice/audio sensing for activation and control, while the E83 and E84 MCUs deliver increased capabilities for advanced HMI implementations, including ML-based wake-up, and vision-based position detection and face/object recognition. The PSOC Edge E84 series adds low-power graphics display (up to 1028 × 768).

Hardware design support includes an evaluation base board with Arduino expansion header, sensor suite, Bluetooth LE connectivity for provisioning and Wi-Fi for smart phone and cloud connectivity. It is also supported by Infineon’s ModusToolbox software platform, which provides development tools, libraries and embedded runtime assets. ModusToolbox supports a range of use cases including consumer IoT, industrial, smart home and wearables.

Integrated into the ModusToolbox is the Imagimob Studio edge AI development platform that delivers end-to-end ML development capability. Included are starter projects and Imagimob’s Ready Models to get started quickly.

The PSOC Edge family is available for early access customers now. Infineon will showcase a demo of the new PSOC Edge MCUs at Embedded World in the Infineon booth (hall 4A, booth #138) and the Arm booth (hall 4, booth #504). The company will also host several TechTalks and presentations.