Winbond Electronics Corporation, a global supplier of semiconductor memory solutions, and Ambiq, a developer in ultra-low power microcontrollers (MCU), System-on-Chips (SoC), and Real-time Clocks (RTC), today announced a collaboration to combine HyperRAM and Apollo4 to deliver ultra-low power system solutions for IoT endpoints and wearables. Several customers are in design with Ambiq’s Apollo4 SoC and Winbond 256Mbx8 HyperRAM Hybrid Sleep Mode (HSM), with volume production expected in 2022. HSM power consumption is about 50% if comparing to normal standby mode. HSM can assist IoT endpoints and wearable to extend more battery life.
The emergence of artificial intelligence and innovations in battery-powered endpoint devices is driving the recent IoT market’s rapid growth. The benefits of having everything connected to enable human communications and facilitate human-machine interactions are primarily evident in the smart home and smart industry. The Apollo4 complete hardware and software solution is purpose-built to allow battery-powered endpoint devices to achieve a higher level of intelligence without sacrificing battery life. Adding HyperRAM can further enhance its low power advantage and allow for faster delivery of high-resolution graphics to improve the performance.
“As the IoT market rapidly expands with the proliferation of diverse mobile and portable devices, how to deliver the most desirable user experience becomes the holy grail for manufacturers. Built on Ambiq’s patented Subthreshold Power Optimized Technology (SPOT™) platform, the Apollo4 delivers higher performance at ultra-low power consumption,” said Dan Cermak, VP of Architecture and Product Planning at Ambiq. “Leveraging Winbond’s HyperRAM to enable expanded storage to support high-resolution displays and complex AI datasets, we can deliver low-power solutions while maintaining low pin count for smaller form-factor endpoint devices.”
“The convergence of AI and IoT (AIoT) requires intelligence, low power consumption, and faster processing of graphics, data, and user interfaces,” said Winbond. “By bringing together HyperRAM and Apollo4, we are setting a new benchmark in ultra-low power and simplifying the design of intelligent devices for our joint customers.”
HyperRAM Key Features
- 256Mb HyperRAM operation frequency: 200MHz/250MHz
- 256Mb 30 ball WLCSP: 13 signal pads for x8 and 22 signal pads for x16
- Available in a variety of form factors of AIoT end product, including 24BGA, WLCSP, and KGD
- Sizes available from 32Mb to 256Mb