GigaDevice Launches Brand New Wi-Fi 6 MCU Series – GD32VW553

The GD32VW553 series MCU supports Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth LE 5.2 wireless connectivity. It features advanced Radio Frequency Integrated Circuits (RFIC), enhanced security mechanisms, generous storage capacity, and a wide range of universal interfaces. Leveraging a mature process platform and cost-effective optimization, it consistently delivers solutions for market applications demanding efficient wireless capabilities. The new product lineup offers eight different models.

With its excellent edge processing and connectivity features, GD32VW553 applies to various wireless application scenarios, including smart home appliances, smart home systems, industrial Internet, and communication gateways. This series of MCUs is also well suited for scenarios with budget constraints, making it an ideal choice for office equipment, payment terminals, and various IoT products.

Eric Jin, GigaDevice’s Product Marketing Director, stated, "The new GD32VW553 series, with its optimized RISC-V open-source instruction set architecture, incorporates the microcontroller with advanced Combo Wireless connection protocols. This addresses the increasing connectivity demands in the thriving home appliances and emerging AIoT market, achieving a balance between processing performance, solution design, and material costs. With an ongoing expansion of GD32 RF development platform, it adeptly addresses wireless design challenges in hi-density and intricate environments, presenting developers with a secure, dependable, energy-efficient, and efficient connectivity experience."

Leading RF computing performance

To fulfill the requirements of real-time processing and efficient communication, the GD32VW553 series MCU incorporates a new open-source instruction set architecture with the RISC-V processor core, boasting a maximum clock frequency of 160 MHz. Additionally, it incorporates advanced DSP hardware acceleration, a double-precision floating-point unit (FPU), instruction expansion interfaces, and various other resources. Through excellent microarchitecture design, this combination results in outstanding energy efficiency, while providing flexibility for scalability.

The integrated 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi 6 RF module follows the IEEE 802.11ax standard and is backward compatible with the IEEE 802.11b/g/n standard, ensuring its suitability for different network environments. It supports Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) enabling multiple devices to share channel resources, resulting in 60% higher data transmission rate compared to Wi-Fi 4. Additionally, it offers support for Multi-User Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MU-MIMO), enabling multiple devices to work simultaneously without interfering with each other, thus achieving high-efficiency and low-latency communication in multi-device high-density access scenarios.

The integrated Bluetooth LE 5.2 RF module extends the communication distance, increases throughput, enhances security, and saves power following the latest Bluetooth specifications. It provides 2 Mbps high-speed data mode and multiple rates of 125K/500Kbps to effectively reduce transmission time and improve sensitivity. It facilitates the establishment and configuration of stable and high-speed wireless networks even in the case of multiple devices and complex environments.

The new Combo Wireless MCU offers advanced baseband and RF performance with a variety of additional features. It supports the wireless coexistence protocol based on the Package Traffic Arbitration (PTA) mechanism, significantly reducing same-frequency interference caused by Wi-Fi and Bluetooth; thereby enhancing the stability of signal reception. Additionally, it is equipped with Automatic Gain Control (AGC) in a high dynamic range to effectively enhance signal quality. Thanks to the Target Wake Time (TWT) of Wi-Fi 6, GD32VW553 can flexibly schedule the sleep and wake-up time, improving energy-saving efficiency and meeting the access requirements of wireless devices with low power consumption and long battery life.

High integration and security

The new GD32VW553 series integrates up to 4MB Flash, 320KB SRAM, and 32KB configurable Instruction Cache (I-Cache) to greatly improve CPU processing efficiency. The GD32VW553, delivering excellent wireless performance, is also equipped with rich universal wired interfaces, including three U(S)ART, two I2C, one SPI, one four-wire QSPI, and up to 29 programmable GPIO pins. Its built-in components include two 32-bit general-purpose timers, two 16-bit general-purpose timers, four 16-bit basic timers, one PWM advanced timer, and one 12-bit ADC. The power supply voltage ranges from 1.8 V to 3.6 V and it offers high temperature up to 105℃ to meet the application scenarios such as industrial control interconnection, lighting equipment, and socket panels.

The GD32VW553 series also provides multiple security features to streamline secure connection and management of high-performance wireless devices. It supports the Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) security feature, incorporating new WPA3 encryption technologies for both personal and corporate networks. The hardware encryption and decryption engine support DES, triple DES, AES, and Hash algorithms. It also supports Public Key Cryptographic Acceleration Unit (PKCAU) to ensure confidentiality and data integrity during wireless communication. The True Random Number Generator (TRNG) can provide unpredictable data for key generation across a variety of security protocols, further enhancing the system’s security capabilities.

Enabling wireless innovation with ecosystem

The RISC-V development ecosystem for GD32 has become increasingly comprehensive, covering the entire development process. It is highly compatible with existing MCU development environments and user habits, enabling users to quickly build competitive market driven solutions. GigaDevice provides the new GD32VW553 series MCU with a range of free development tools, including GD32 IDE, GD-LINK debugging and download tool, and GD32 All-In-One Programmer. In addition, GigaDevice has concurrently released the SDKs that contain the underlying driver, wireless protocol stack, and application routine. Development boards that are compatible with various Real-Time Operating Systems (RTOS) supporting local connection, cloud connection, security, and Over the Air (OTA) upgrade are also available, enabling rapid deployment of connectivity devices. The GD32VW553 series meets the Matter over Wi-Fi application standard developed by the international organization Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA). This allows GD32VW553 to facilitate seamless interconnections among various Matter devices, improving the overall compatibility and interoperability of smart home systems.

SEGGER, the industry’s leading supplier of embedded development systems from Germany, has formed a strategic partnership with GigaDevice to offer developers free access to the SEGGER Embedded Studio IDE and a complete suite of development tools. IAR from Sweden will also provide comprehensive support for the new GD32VW553 series MCU, including development and compilation tools as well as tracking and debugging tools.

The GD32VW553 series MCU has achieved official Wi-Fi 6 certification from the Wi-Fi Alliance (WFA), Bluetooth certification from the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (Bluetooth SIG), and RF FCC/CE compliance certification. GigaDevice is actively partnering with multiple module manufacturers and developer platforms to offer "turnkey solutions," encompassing wireless modules, certificate authentication service, and more. These solutions enable the rapid development of Internet of Things (IoT) platforms and product solutions that support various wireless communication technologies such as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.

Availability and Pricing

GigaDevice is now accepting requests for samples and evaluation boards in two compact package options: QFN40 and QFN32. These products are scheduled for mass production and will be available for delivery starting in December 2023. More Information availability and pricing please visit email: sales.europe@macnica.com.

About GigaDevice

GigaDevice Semiconductor Inc. (SSE Stock Code 603986) is a leading global fabless supplier. The company was founded in April 2005 with branch offices in many countries and regions worldwide, providing local support at customers‘ fingertips.

Committed to building a complete ecosystem with major product lines – Flash memory, MCU, sensor, and power as the core driving force, GigaDevice can provide a wide range of solutions and services in the fields of industrial, automotive, computing, consumer electronics, IoT, mobile, networking, and communications.

GigaDevice management system has achieved ISO 9001:2015 and ISO 14001:2015 certifications. Constantly looking to expand the technology offering to customers, GigaDevice has also formed multiple strategic alliances with leading foundries, assembly, and test plants to streamline supply chain management.

For more details, please visit: https://www.gigadevice.com/

GigaDevice, GD32, and their logos are trademarks, or registered trademarks of GigaDevice Semiconductor Inc. Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others.