STMicroelectronics has increased the amount of on-chip memory on its ARM Cortex-M3-based microcontrollers to address display, sound and control applications.

This means the STM32 family of 32-bit MCUs has up to 512kbyte of on-chip flash and up to 64kbyte of SRAM.

ST has added 28 new devices to the STM32 family, including devices in 36-pin packages at the low end and 144-pin packages at the high end.

There is also a new static memory controller supporting NOR and NAND flash, SRAM, and CompactFlash memories. It also supports Intel 8080 and Motorola 6800 modes for parallel interface with LCD controllers.

There is a host interface for removable media including SD (Secure Digital), SDIO (Secure Digital Input/Output) and MMC (MultiMediaCard), meeting MultiMediaCard System Specification 4.42 for 8-bit data transfer at 48MHz.

In addition, an I2S port supporting master and slave modes and audio-sampling frequencies from 8kHz to 48kHz has been added, as well as a 2-channel 12-bit DAC and an Embedded Trace Macrocell (ETM) to enhanced debug capabilities.

The embedded SRAM has been increased, to 64kbyte for the 72MHz Performance Line variants and 48kbyte for the 36MHz Access Line devices.

The STM32 MCU family was first introduced in June 2007.