STMicro Launches the STLINK-V3PRW to Help You Streamline Your STM32 Project's Power Draw
New debug and programming probe comes with power measuring capabilities from the microamps up to 500mA.
STMicroelectronics has announced a new programming and debug probe for STM32-family microcontrollers, the STLINK-V3PWR, which includes high-accuracy power measurement capabilities.
"Ultra-low-power microcontroller applications use energy harvesting or run for years on batteries, however small design errors can create unexpected power issues," says Arm's Reinhard Keil in support of STMicro's latest debugging tool. "The new STLINK-V3PWR probe enables power profiling with [Arm's] Keil MDK. The µVision debugger can correlate program events with power consumption, providing analysis to help developers identify potential design errors and enabling multi-fold improvements to battery lifetime."
The STLINK-V3PWR hardware itself offers the usual functionality of a debug probe, with JTAG and Serial Wire Debug (SWD) connectivity to a target microcontroller, a virtual serial port with multi-path bridge for SPI, UART, I2C, CAN, and general-purpose input/output (GPIO) communication, and the ability to flash new firmware directly to a target device.
It's the probe's power-profiling capabilities which makes it stand out from the competition, however. STMicro claims the gadget can measure current values from the microamps up to 500mA with an accuracy of ±0.5 per cent, while providing up to 2A of power to the target system through a single USB cable.
"Full support for the STLINK-V3PWR probe within IAR Embedded Workbench for Arm allows developers faster and easier access to power analysis that is both accurate and repeatable, and with high resolution," adds IAR's Anders Holmberg of his company's software, which has announced launch-day support for the probe alongside Arm's Keil MDK.
"It is sure to help realize greater energy savings and efficiency gains in next-generation ultra-low-power and ultra-efficient smart, connected devices while also drastically accelerating their time to market."
The probe is now available in the channel at $93.10; more information is available on STMicro's website, including a download of the company's in-house graphical power monitoring tool STM32CubeMonPwr with STLINK-V3PWR support.
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