ST's SPC58 family comprises a variety of automotive microcontrollers, available in single-core, dual-core, and triple-core varieties. In addition to various certifications, a long-term production commitment ensures the product's viability.

Success in the automotive environment requires adherence to various standards. In particular, the SPC58 supports the ASIL-B requirements of ISO 26262, featuring a variety of dedicated peripherals not typically found on non-automotive microcontrollers.

In addition, a recent announcement by STMicroelectronics declared that these parts will be covered by a 20-year longevity commitment in the future.

Power Architecture for Compute

While most general-purpose microcontrollers utilize RISC/V or ARM cores, automotive microcontroller design prefers the Power Architecture, which is derived from the PowerPC CPU used to run Mac OS. For most of the MCUs discussed here, one or two e200z420 cores run the actual application software. For example, the SPC584C70E1 is a single-core MCU, while the SPC58EC70E1 is capable of dual-core operation. Furthermore, some SKUs have an additional e200z0 core embedded in the Hardware Security Module. Finally, all members of the family have 4 MB of code flash and an additional 128 KB of data flash, intended to store frequently changing parameters.

STM32 Peripherals for the Automotive Space

STMicroelectronics is well-known for its STM32 microcontroller families, with the STM32F103 and STM32L431 being popular embodiments. With the SPC58 family, ST expands its portfolio to include the peripherals required for automotive electronics. As an example, the GPIO interface is contained in a unit called the Enhanced Modular IO subsystem; it is advertised to offer the following features:

-- Buffered updates

-- Support for shifted PWM outputs to minimize occurrence of concurrent edges

-- Supports configurable trigger outputs for ADC conversion for synchronization to channel output waveforms

-- Shared or independent time bases

-- DMA transfer support available

Inside the chip, cross-triggering logic can then use these signals to trigger ADC conversions and similar data acquisition processes.

Additional automotive interfaces, such as CAN, FlexRay, and Gigabit Ethernet, are covered via dedicated transceivers. In case of the Ethernet unit, STMicroelectronics promises the following performance data:

-- IEEE 1588-2008 Time stamping (internal 64-bit time stamp)

-- IEEE 802.1AS and IEEE 802.1Qav (AVB-Feature)

-- IEEE 802.1Q VLAN tag detection

-- IPv4 and IPv6 checksum modules

Conclusion

If an automotive system needs a high-performance microcontroller, the SPC58 is a no-brainer. Thanks to the longevity commitment and the adherence to various industry standards, deploying it ensures that a design can be certified easily and then manufactured for decades. In short, a CPU core that always deserves the highest recommendation.