The new BLYST840 packs a surprising amount of IoT hardware into its tiny, fingertip size

BLYST Nano is a tiny ARM Cortex Module with Bluetooth and 30 I/O, but next product BLYST840 is a finger-tip size, 32-bit ARM Cortex-M4F module with Bluetooth 5 and 46 I/O; a powerful upgrade of a system on a module indeed.

Built around the Nordic nRF52832 Bluetooth SOC and the powerful 64MHz ARM cortex- M4Fprocessor, the new BLYST840 from I-SYST can be described as an advanced and highly flexible chip solution to the rising demand in ULP wireless applications for IoT devices.

With dimensions smaller than a US quarter coin, the 14 x 9 x 1.6 mm BLYST840 packages everything an IoT device needs into a fingertip-sized module. The BLYST840 contains a CPU ( ARM Cortex-M4F), 46 I/O pins exposed to pads around the module for easy assembly, coils for low-power DC/DC mode, built-in ceramic antenna,  encryption co-processor, NFC antenna, DC/DC converter, built-in 32 MHz and 32.768 MHz crystal for low power applications and requires no extra PCB space for supporting components. The BLYST840 also features an on-board regulator that accepts an input voltage of 5.5V and up to 25 mA for an external circuit.

While the BLYST840 maintained a lot of similarities with I-SYST last product, the  BLYST Nano, it comes with several features that put it a few pedestals higher with 46 I/O pins, more wireless protocols like Thread and Zigbee added to the existing Bluetooth 5 support, and support for Micropython. The extensive availability of the memory (1MB flash and 256 KB RAM) together with the 32-bit ARM Cortex M4F running at 64 MHz also allows for quick and more efficient computation of complex functions.

The tiny BLYST840, gets you covered anytime, either in hand-assembly prototyping or in production as the pads are designed in such a way that it can be easily mounted on a board for reflow soldering or hand soldering. It also comes with most of the needed wireless certifications including FCC, IC, and CE, so you can integrate directly into your project without worrying about those certifications.

Finally, a number of software development resources are freely available for both the MicroPython ports and the nRF52840. The module is supported by the open-source multi-architecture and multi-platform IOsonata design library, that supports a wide range of microcontrollers used for IoT designs.

The BLYST840 is currently not out for sale, but I-SYST plans to launch a crowdfunding campaign on Crowd Supply for the board, with prices starting at $18. This might be a good opportunity to get access to the board early. In the meantime, you can visit the pre-order page for more details about the module.

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