Geehy Semiconductor Unwraps Family of Automotive Arm Cortex M0+ MCUs

Geehy Semiconductor recently introduced three new automotive microcontrollers. The G32A1085, G32A1065, and G32A1045 are Arm Cortex-M0+ based microcontrollers targeted at automotive applications. All three operate at 64 MHz and have an integrated memory protection unit (MPU). The 1085 comes with 256 KB flash and 32 KB SRAM. The 1065 has 128KB and 16 KB and the 1045 has 64 KB and 8 KB.

Three new Geehy Arm Cortex-M0+-based MCUs—the G32A1085, G32A1065, and G32A1045

The MCUs meet AEC-Q100 Grade 1 certification and ISO 26262 ASIL-B functional safety level. These two regulatory levels put the MCUs into secondary control and monitoring applications such as adaptive cruise control, HVAC operations, and lighting. The chips operate with a supply voltage from 2.75 V to 5.5 V. Their certified temperature range of -40°C to 125°C makes them suitable for both cabin and engine compartment installation.

Automotive Targeted Feature Set

The G32A10XX MCUs are appointed with safety, security, and generous I/O as is required for today’s automotive applications. Communications include two LPUSARTs, one LPSPI, and one CAN (2.0A/B/FD) port. In addition, it has up to 55 GPIO ports, all of which can be mapped to external interrupt vectors. Peripherals include a 16-bit advanced timer that can be configured as a 7-channel PWM with braking functionality, three 16-bit general purpose timers, 3-basic timers, an RTC, and one 12-bit ADC.

G32A10XX MCU Functional overview

Memory and code safety come through the MPU, CRC, independent watchdog timer, clock monitoring, and flash/SRAM ECC. Hardware security includes a true random number generator (TRNG), AES256 encryption and SHA256 hashing. A 96-bit unique ID rounds out safety and security. More information can be found in the G32A10XX MCU data sheet.

Dual Development Tools Give Choice

Geehy supports the G32A line of MCUs with two different development SDKs. In recognition that strict automotive standards are sometimes, but not always a requirement, Geehy offers an AUTOSAR compliant SDK and a lighter traditional SDK.

The AUTOSAR compliant MCAL (Microcontroller Abstraction Layer drive) set comes with MCAL drivers to bridge the MCU physical layer to the standardized MCAL software interface layer. This allows for portability of applications between different MCAL compatible hardware. The traditional development SDK directly connects system software to the MCU hardware for a lightweight code base, but does not have the portability or built-in compliance of the MCAL version.

The chips are compatible with development environments from Keil, IAR, and Eclipse.

Reference Applications

Geehy has developed three robust, tested, reference designs to help developers better understand the MCU and application architectures. The designs follow the emerging automotive best practice of "central computing + regional control" design. This model modularizes design and improves portability and long-term maintainability.

Adaptive driving beam reference design block diagram.

The e designs make use of the MCUs’ broad integrated peripheral set. They demonstrate, with real-world examples, how to reduce the number of external components and PCB area through parameterized reuse.

• The ultrasonic radar control utilizes Geehy’s 8-unit GURC01 ultrasonic sensor and signal processor chip to demonstrate an 8-channel ultrasonic reverse radar system. It includes temperature compensation, clutter removal, and range calibration.
• An in-vehicle refrigeration control system includes fault classifications, monitoring, startup protection and lockout protection. While passenger cooling is not a direct safety critical system, reliability is a key post-sale customer satisfaction requirement. The reference design has extensive reliability, testing, and diagnostic functionality built in.
• The third reference design controls adaptive driving beam (ADB) headlights. The ADB system utilizes MCAL drivers for hardware and software portability and demonstrates state machine architecture.

Evaluation Boards and Availability

Geehy offers a complementary development board to qualified developers. The board comes with the MCU, five on-board LEDs, a CAN-FD transceiver, a LIN transceiver, five user buttons, a USB Type-C interface, and a single wire debug (SWD) interface. The development board and all three chips are in mass production and available for purchase now.

All images used courtesy of Geehy.