What is the Apollo MCU platform?

Apollo is a family of ultra-low-power microcontrollers developed by Ambiq for battery-powered devices such as wearables, IoT sensors, and wireless embedded systems.

What processor core does Apollo use?

Apollo processors use the Arm Cortex-M4 architecture, providing efficient embedded processing with floating-point support for sensor processing and signal analysis.

What makes Apollo microcontrollers ultra-low power?

Apollo MCUs use Ambiq’s SPOT (Subthreshold Power Optimized Technology), which allows the processor to operate at extremely low voltages and reduce power consumption.

What applications use Apollo microcontrollers?

Apollo MCUs are commonly used in wearables, fitness trackers, smart home devices, industrial sensors, healthcare monitoring systems, and battery-powered IoT devices.

Does Apollo support sensor processing?

Yes. Apollo microcontrollers include analog and digital sensor interfaces that allow devices to process accelerometer, gyroscope, and other sensor data efficiently.

Why is ultra-low power important for wearable devices?

Wearable devices require processors that consume minimal power to extend battery life while maintaining reliable performance for continuous monitoring and data processing.

Can Apollo MCUs support edge AI workloads?

Yes. Apollo processors can support lightweight edge AI workloads such as activity recognition, voice commands, and sensor data analytics.

What development tools support the Apollo platform?

Ambiq provides software development kits, documentation, and developer tools to help engineers build applications using the Apollo MCU platform.

Apollo

The Apollo SoC is an ultra-low power, highly integrated system on a chip designed for battery-powered devices including wearable electronics, activity and fitness monitors, and wireless sensors.

By combining ultra-low power sensor conversion electronics with the powerful Arm^® Cortex^®-M4F processor with the Floating Point Unit (FPU) options, the Apollo SoC enables complex sensor processing tasks to be completed with unprecedented battery life.

Not recommended for new designs. Check out Apollo2 or Apollo3 instead.

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Block Diagram for the Apollo Ultra-Low Power SoC

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Weeks, months, and years of battery life are achievable while doing complex context detection, gesture recognition, and activity monitoring. The Apollo SoC takes full advantage of Ambiq’s patented Sub-threshold Power Optimized Technology (SPOT^®) Platform, setting a new industry benchmark in low power design.

The Apollo SoC also integrates up to 512KB of flash memory and 64KB of RAM to accommodate radio and sensor overhead while still leaving plenty of space for application code. This system on a chip also includes a serial master and UART port for communicating with radios and sensors including accelerometers, gyroscopes, and magnetometers.

Feature Highlights

An ideal solution for battery-powered applications requiring sensor measurement and data analysis.

Can measure analog sensor outputs using an integrated ultra-low power 10-bit ADC and digital sensor outputs using the integrated serial master ports.

Capable of running complex data analysis and sensor fusion algorithms to process the sensor data.

Enables months and years of battery life for products only achieving days or months of battery life today.

Implementation of the Cortex-M4F core delivers both greater performance and much lower power than 8-bit, 16-bit, and other comparable 32-bit cores.

ADC is uniquely tuned for minimum power with a configurable measurement mode that does not require SoC intervention.

Supported by a complete suite of standard software development tools.

Ideal Solution

An ideal solution for battery-powered applications requiring sensor measurement and data analysis.

ADC with Analog and Digital Outputs

Can measure analog sensor outputs using an integrated ultra-low power 10-bit ADC and digital sensor outputs using the integrated serial master ports.

Process Sensor Data

Capable of running complex data analysis and sensor fusion algorithms to process the sensor data.

Extended Battery Life

Enables months and years of battery life for products only achieving days or months of battery life today.

Greater Performance

Implementation of the Cortex-M4F core delivers both greater performance and much lower power than 8-bit, 16-bit, and other comparable 32-bit cores.

Uniquely Tuned ADC

ADC is uniquely tuned for minimum power with a configurable measurement mode that does not require SoC intervention.

Software Tool Suite

Supported by a complete suite of standard software development tools.

Specifications

Apollo BGA
APOLLO512-KBR

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Apollo WLCSP
APOLLO512-KCR

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Apollo
Evaluation Board
AMAP1EVB

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Ultra-Low Supply Current
EEMBC ULP Bench score of 377
35 μA/MHz executing from flash at 3.3 V
143 nA deep sleep mode at 3.3 V
419 nA deep sleep mode with XTAL-assisted RTC at 3.3 V

High-Performance Arm Cortex-M4 Processor
Up to 24 MHz clock frequency
Floating Point Unit (FPU)
Memory Protection Unit (MPU)
Wake-up interrupt controller with 12 interrupts

Ultra-Low Power Memory
Up to 512KB of flash memory for code/data
Up to 64KB of low power RAM for code/data

Ultra-Low Power Interface for Off-Chip Sensors
10-bit, 13-channel up to 800 kSps ADC
Up to 800 kSps sampling rate
Temperature sensor with ±4°C accuracy

Ultra-Low Power Flexible Serial Peripherals
2x I²C/SPI masters for communication with sensors, radios, and other peripherals
1x I²C/SPI slave for host communications
1x UART for communication with peripherals and legacy devices

Rich Set of Clock Sources
32.768 kHz Crystal (XTAL) oscillators
Low Frequency RC (LFRC) oscillator (1.024 kHz)
High Frequency RC (HFRC) oscillator (24 MHz)
RTC based on Ambiq’s AM08X5/18X5 family

Wide Operating Range
1.8-3.8 V, -40°C to 85°C

Applications
Wearable electronics
Wireless sensors
Activity and fitness monitors
Consumer medical devices

Package Options
4.5 mm x 4.5 mm 64-pin BGA with 50 GPIO
2.49 mm x 2.90 mm 41-pin WLCSP with 27 GPIO

Ordering Information
APOLLO512-KBR (512KB Flash, 64KB RAM, 64-pin BGA)
APOLLO512-KCR (512KB Flash, 64KB RAM, 41-pin WLCSP)
AMAP1EVB (EVB)

Typical Sensor Application Circuit for the Apollo MCU

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Apollo is a family of ultra-low-power system on chips (SoCs) developed by Ambiq for battery-powered devices such as wearables, IoT sensors, and wireless embedded systems.
Apollo processors use the Arm® Corte® x-M4 architecture as well as M55 depending on Apollo generation, providing efficient embedded processing with floating-point support for sensor processing and signal analysis.
Apollo SoCs use Ambiq’s SPOT® (Subthreshold Power Optimized Technology) platform, which allows the transistiors to operate at extremely low voltages and reduce power consumption.
Apollo SoCs are commonly used in wearables, fitness trackers, smart home devices, industrial sensors, healthcare monitoring systems, and battery-powered IoT devices.
Yes. Apollo SoCs include analog and digital sensor interfaces that allow devices to process accelerometer, gyroscope, and other sensor data efficiently.
Wearable devices require processors that consume minimal power to extend battery life while maintaining reliable performance for continuous monitoring and data processing.
Yes. Apollo SoCs can support lightweight edge AI workloads such as activity recognition, voice commands, and sensor data analytics.
Ambiq provides software development kits, documentation, and developer tools to help engineers build applications using the Apollo SoC platform.

Apollo

Block Diagram for the Apollo Ultra-Low Power SoC

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Feature Highlights

Specifications

Documents

Click the link below to access the documents

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

What is the Apollo SoC platform?

What processor core does Apollo use?

What makes Apollo system on chips ultra-low power?

What applications use Apollo system on chips?

Does Apollo support sensor processing?

Why is ultra-low power important for wearable devices?

Can Apollo SoCs support edge AI workloads?

What development tools support the Apollo platform?

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