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is the STM32F4 EOL?


Zam
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Hi all

For info

I just check STM32F4disco at one of my regular component supplier, and there is a new one coming soon.

So I check at manufacturer and the board is now NRND, replaced by something looking absolutely the same but with STM32F407VG in place of STM32F407VE.

http://www.st.com/web/catalog/tools/FM116/SC959/SS1532/PF252419

I have no knowledge for understanding/comparison about change.

Just to let you know there is certainly a need to check what's going on, and be sure MIOS/MBHP will run fine with new STM32F4 board

Best

Zam

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  • 3 weeks later...

Hi,

methinks the new SKU to search for is

"STM32F407G-DISC1"

It features the new "G" processor, has the same 1MB of flash, 192KB of RAM, 168 MHz, sounds quite like the predecessor.

It is also listed as "new" at mouser, at a much higher price, though:

http://www.mouser.de/ProductDetail/STMicroelectronics/STM32F407G-DISC1

But it can be purchased cheaper from Farnell, and is available (at higher price) at Digikey, RS-Online, ...

http://de.farnell.com/stmicroelectronics/stm32f407g-disc1/entw-brd-stm32f407vg-found-line/dp/2506840

It would be great, if someone could buy one of these new boards and confirm compatibility!

Many greets!

Peter

 

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found some originals at conrad.nl. I got a good deal: two pieces for €41 including shipping.  they give some kwantumkorting aka mengenrabatt aka volume discount for 2 pieces, at least on their .nl and .de

https://www.conrad.nl/nl/stmicroelectronics-stm32f4discovery-developmentboard-443910.html

Fair enough i think, farnell has €8 shipping below €50,-

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7 minutes ago, Shuriken said:

Incase you are wondering, i merged the topics :wink:

 

yes, better this way :happy:

 

Hope the new version is compatible because since I have a look at RS, they just stop to sell the old one.

I rememberer they have lot in stock... I don't believe they sold all since, sound more like distributor deal with STMicro... the new one cost twice,

and only available for delivery in 3 month :hmm:

Best

Zam

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As mentioned by Hawkeye, the predecessor STM32F4DISCOVERY has exactly the same chip (with 1 MB flash) like the new STM32F407G-DISC1 development board.

My assumption (not confirmed) is, that ST just initiated a new batch production run of the board and changed the name to differentiate from other variants with similar names, but different feature set.

The ST page (-> http://www.st.com/web/catalog/tools/FM116/SC959/SS1532/PF252419 ) shows that the old board is almost out-of-stock, but Farnell got 1000 pieces of the new board and offers it for the old price, which is a good sign.

So - let's assume it's only a temporary outage.

But we should also start to search for the next generation MBHP_CORE_xxx candidate! ;-)

Best Regards, Thorsten.

 

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I think for now we are safe with the G option of the STM32F4. Getting a lot of spam though from ST about the STM32F7. So maybe in time this is something to consider. But i think for the next year at least we can still cope with the first option. Until Thorsten thinks of some new uber cool (and cpu hungry) use case ofcourse :happy:

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The STM32F7 really needs to be evaluated carefully, it's an interesting chip but it is a much more complicated, dual-issue and caches. I am not however sure the added features (DDR controller, QSPI flash) are so relevant to MIDIBox, unless of course a simple board shows up with a few megabytes of RAM... the dev board I have is very feature-rich, touch screen display and such.

I'm sure the F4 is going to be here for a very long time, though.

Edited by niklasni1
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A DDR controller would make it easier to make a DIY sampler or wavetable synth so it has its uses :grin:

Also, there are all kinds of small CPUs with DSP or FP acceleration so if one can wait a little there will be something new that will cost as little as the F4 with vast new capabilities.

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Cortex M3 or M4 compatibility is a must, I don't plan to introduce a new CPU which wouldn't allow to run existing applications.

Of course, external memory would open new possibilities.

On the other hand (and contrary to this): wouldn't it be nice to have a much smaller form factor?
Something like Teensy, but with a more powerful microcontroller which is (or meets the specs) of a STM32F407, and gives access to at least 3 SPI, 2 UARTs and 1 I2C port?

Best Regards, Thorsten.

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Browsed a few different Disco boards. It seems that the more advanced members of the F4 family all come with touch screen LCDs and they cost up to 60€. Still, crypto engine, lots of RAM and SDRAM is there.

A smaller "voice card"/MIDI gadget CPU could be a nice addition though.

Edited by jojjelito
Corrected autocorrect from teh iPad...
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Agreed, while the bigger discos look nice, they have some functions (crypto and displays), that are not needed and they are a bit on the expensive side...

A small, expandable new core would allow to build even more specialized MIDIboxes for the same amount of $$$! :-).

For the RAM option, of course, it would be easiest to have onboard memory or a DDR controller close to the microcontroller... but, the memory itself probably would not need to be huge or superfast to access for most MIDIbox app usecases... The option to add one or two megabytes would most likely be sufficient and already offer cool new possibilities... As long as the memory access does not have the SD-card (write) access lag, even a low memory bandwidth would do, a "map-in" function would be probably easy to realize, you'd request a page of external ram and have it mapped into chip-internal fast ram...

Imho, this therefore might be realized e.g. with SPI-connected SRAM... the module linked below currently costs about 3 USD per 128KB of memory, which would totally fit the bill (and allow for a smaller core). Of course, as I am primarily a dreamer and not at all an EE, this might not be so easy to realize as it sounds :-)
http://ww1.microchip.com/downloads/en/DeviceDoc/25156A.pdf

Sorry for the offtopic discussion, by the way! :-D

Many greets!

Peter

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