User Manual

Apollo3 Blue Datasheet
DS-A3-0p9p1 Page 66 of 909 2019 Ambiq Micro, Inc.
All rights reserved.
2. System Core
Figure 3. Block Diagram for the Ultra-Low Power Apollo3 Blue MCU
The ultra-low power Apollo3 Blue MCU, shown in Figure 3, is an ideal solution for battery-powered
applications requiring sensor measurement and data analysis. In a typical system, the Apollo3 Blue MCU
serves as an applications processor for one or more sensors and has a fully integrated BLE 5 radio. The
Apollo3 Blue MCU can measure analog sensor outputs using an integrated ADC and digital sensor outputs
using the integrated serial master ports. The Cortex-M4 core with Floating Point Unit (referred to
throughout this document as “M4”, “M4 Core” or “Cortex-M4”) integrated in the Apollo3 Blue MCU is
capable of running complex data analysis and sensor fusion algorithms to process the sensor data. The
Cortex-M4 core with FPU also enables accelerated time-to-market since application code may be
efficiently executed in floating point form without the need to perform extensive fixed point optimizations. In
other configurations, a host processor can communicate with the Apollo3 Blue MCU over its serial slave
port using the I
2
C, SPI or I
2
S protocol.
With unprecedented energy efficiency for sensor conversion and data analysis, the Apollo3 Blue MCU
enables months and years of battery life for products only achieving days or months of battery life today.
For example, a fitness monitoring device with days or weeks of life on a rechargeable battery could be
redesigned to achieve a year or more of life on a non-rechargeable battery. Similarly the Apollo3 Blue MCU
enables the use of more complex sensor processing algorithms due to its extremely low active mode
power of 6 µA/MHz. By using the Apollo3 Blue MCU, the aforementioned fitness monitoring device could
achieve the current multi-day or multi-week battery life while adding new computation-intensive functions
like context detection and gesture recognition.
BTLE 5
Controller
BTLE Radio
Security
Voltage
Monitoring
I
2
C / SPI
Master
(x6)
50-
Channel
GPIO
1MB Flash
Memory
384kB RAM
DMA
DMA
DMA
D
M
A
DMA
DMA
BTLE
Voltage
Monitoring
Brown-
Out
Detector
Supply
Voltage
Monitor
Power-
On Reset
Serial
Communication
I2C / SPI
Master
(x6)
I2C /
SPI
Slave
(x1)
50-
Channel
GPIO
UART
(x2)
Buck
Converters
I2S
Slave
(x1)
PDM
Master
(x1
stereo)
Security
Cortex M4 with FPU, Up to 96MHz
MCU
Timing
Wake-Up
Interrupt
Controller
Power
Management
Unit
Reset
Controller
16kB
Flash
Cache
Sys Timer /
RTC
Timers /
PWM
(x8)
LFRC HFRC XTAL
Dual/
Quad/
Octal-SPI
(x1)
14b, 1.2MS/s,
15-Channel
ADC
Sensor
Peripherals
Low Leakage
Comparator
...
Temp Sensor
Complex
Pattern
Generators
Programmable
Controllers
(x8)
Stepper
Motor
ISO7816
Master
(x1)