STM32L4+ Discovery supports 120MHz, a 50% increase in maximum operating frequency.
Compatible with Arduino and Microelectronics shield boards

Just follow along and you'll become a kit expert! Today's kit is the STM32L4+ Discovery Kit from STMicroelectronics (hereafter referred to as ST). Through EVKIT, ST's Manager Kim Du-hyung demonstrated the features and functionality of the STM32L4+ Discovery Kit. We heard in detail about the STM32L4+ MCU and Discovery Kit, which were introduced at CES 2018 and have proven themselves globally for their low-power yet high-performance capabilities. The demonstration also provided valuable insights for developers and others.
- Could you explain the features of the STM32L4+ Discovery Kit, which is mainly used in smart applications?
With battery-powered smart applications accounting for a significant portion of the market, designs with low power and energy efficiency are essential. The STM32L4+, a low-power MCU, achieved high scores in ULPBench and supports a maximum operating frequency of 120MHz, a 50% increase over the STM32L4. It also provides communication interfaces such as UART, I2C, SPI, USB, LPTimer, LPUART, MIPI DSI, parallel for TFT LCD, and Octo-SPI.

- What role does the Chrome-ART Accelerator, built into the round UI as an enhanced graphic, play?
The Chrome-ART accelerator supports blending two images and pixel format conversion. It also provides data copying and anti-aliasing management for this purpose. This reduces CPU load when performing 2D graphics tasks.

Additionally, the STM32L4+ includes Chrom-GRC, a graphics memory management unit (MMU) that optimizes memory usage based on display format. For example, when designing an application that supports a circular display, such as a smart band, resources use rectangular images. In this case, when outputting the display, the portions other than the circular portion only waste memory resources. However, Chrom-GRC copies the rectangular resource image to virtual memory and then stores only the portion visible on the circular display in actual memory, saving memory resources by approximately 20%.

- These days, it's used to connect to a variety of devices. Is there a shield board that can be used with the STM32L4+ Discovery Kit?
The STM32L4+ Discovery Kit provides a FAN-OUT expansion board that supports connectors for use with Arduino shields and is compatible with microelectronics boards. So it can be expanded and prototyped in various forms through Arduino shields or microelectronic modules.

- Engineers will need a variety of example libraries to use easily. What libraries are currently available?
For customers using ST MCUs, the STM32 CubeMX tool is available. STM32 CubeMX generates initialization C code and is available free of charge on the ST website. Installing this tool provides access to the HAL driver for the STM32L4+, as well as numerous examples for I2C, SPI, UART, and OctoSPI. It also facilitates the porting of middleware such as RTOS, USB, and Fatfilesystem.

- When creating an application device using the STM32L4+ Discovery Kit, what are the differences and competitive advantages compared to devices on the market?
First, it's low power. The STM32L4+ offers excellent energy efficiency and a variety of low-power modes. This allows users to selectively utilize the appropriate low-power mode depending on the application's operating flow.

Second, the graphical user interface. The STM32L4+ offers a variety of graphics features, including MIPI, DSI, and parallel interfaces for TFT-LCD, the Chrom-ART accelerator, and Chrom-GRC. It also supports a variety of memory types using the FSMC and Qcto-SPI interfaces, and has 640KB of SRAM onboard. These features provide an environment for implementing user-optimized graphical interfaces.

Third, there is the security feature. STM32L4+ has security features for implementing smart devices, including anti-tamper detection, unique ID, AES hardware accelerator, true random number generator, and hash.