ATBTLC1000ZR vs ATSAMB11ZR

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ekalyvio
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Posted by ekalyvio: Sat. Dec 23, 2017 - 05:34 PM
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Hello. I am really a newbie with MCUs and generally speaking with hardware design. As such I have a probably a little stupid question.

I am in search of a really low power Bluetooth board that is capable of collecting (& processing) data that have been gathered from some sensors that communicate via I2C protocol (Gyro, Accelerometer, Magnetometer) and also some 1-wire thermistors. I ended up looking at both the ATBTLC1000ZR and the ATSAMB11ZR modules. Both seem to have an ARM-Cortex M0 32-bit processor. What I really don't understand is the following:

  1. The ATBTLC1000ZR states in the datasheet that It can be used as a Bluetooth Low Energy link controller or data pump with external host MCU.
  2. The ATSAMB11ZR states in the datasheet, that It is a standalone Cortex -M0 applications processor with embedded Flash memory and BLE connectivity.

Do both of the above statements mean that:

  1. I can not program the ATBTLC1000ZR to do my task I want?
  2. I should use the ATSAMB11ZR for my task as it has Flash memory?

Then what is the ARM Cortex processor doing in both modules?

Also why the ATBTLC1000XR datasheet states that it contains an SPI, I2C, etc. interfaces? Since it can not be programmed aren't these useless?

 

Thank you very much.

Efthymios Kalyviotis

This topic has a solution.

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Wireless, Bluetooth, solved
Last Edited: Sun. Jan 7, 2018 - 10:29 PM
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Bronze Markawneil
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This reply has been marked as the solution. 
Posted by awneil: Sun. Dec 24, 2017 - 01:11 AM
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The thing with the ATBTLC1000-ZR seems to be that it has no user-programmable Flash.

So, while you can load an application, it will be lost when power is lost - so you always need something else to load the code at power-up.

 

The ATSAMB11ZR, on the other hand, does have Flash - so you can permanently load your application.

 

ekalyvio wrote:
Then what is the ARM Cortex processor doing in both modules?

It is running the BLE stack.

 

 

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