Neural processor in Bluetooth and Matter wireless MCU

Alif Semiconductor has put an Arm Ethos-U55 neural processor alongside a Bluetooth Low Energy radio in a microcontroller for AI and machine learning workloads – all in a tine WLCSP package.

ALIF Balletto neural processor with bluetooth

It is called Balletto.

“Balletto gives manufacturers the opportunity to implement AI/ML functions such as speech recognition, adaptive noise cancellation, vocal targeting and beam forming in true wireless stereo earbuds, and sensor fusion in lifestyle wristbands and other types of space-constrained devices,” according to Alif.

The CPU is a Cortex-M55 for which the company is claiming an EEMBC CoreMark score of 704 at 160MHz, and it has “the Arm Helium M-profile vector extension, providing a 500% improvement in DSP performance”.

The Ethos-U55 is is backed by 2Mbyte of tightly-coupled memory and rated at 46Gop/s, producing “outstanding results in audio encoding-decoding functions, including for the LC3 codec which underpins BLE Auracast audio technology”, claimed Alif.

Concurrent Bluetooth LE 5.3 and Thread operation are supported through a single on-chip antenna, according to the company, “making it ideal for use in home automation networks and systems that support the Matter protocol”.

Receive sensitivity is -101dBm and there are dual power amplifiers: +10dBm for maximum range or +4dBm for lower power consumption.

Other features include a secure enclave with its own dedicated processor and memory for root-of-trust and chain-of-custody, a 2D GPU, a camera interface and a MIPI display interface.

Digital interfaces include I3C, 480Mbit/s USB, twin CAN-FD channels and Octal SPI, and for analogue signals there are ADCs including a 24bit ΣΔ, and a DAC.