Before the STM8S001J3 MCUs hit the streets, I received a few samples directly from ST Microeletronics to evaluate. ST finally jumped on a train ran by companies like Microchip or NXP for something like 20 years. It is coming from STM8S family, now being almost classic and well proven chip family.

The Good
STM8S001J3 is very similar to STM8S003F3 - so much similar it's probably the same silicon chip, actually. There is nothing inherently wrong about it, as it makes development cheaper - that is easier for manufacturer and cheaper for end customer - and allows to jump on existing development tools, again enabling customers to work with the MCUs easier and faster.

The Bad
On the other hand, dark side if this decision is easily recognizable. Fitting 20-pin chip into 8-pin frame forces designers into some compromises - which pins to expose, which ones to leave unconnected? Another option is to merge multiple bonding pads to single package pin - and that is route which was chosen in ST.
It allows multiple…

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