As many students, system developers and even hobbyists will be able to confirm, STMicroelectronics can  be relied on for building blocks that seem to link anything to, erm, anything. Now there are two new Discovery Packs in the STM32 line that promise “a fast connection of IoT devices to Cloud services over 2G/3G or LTE Cat M1/NB1 networks”.

At the heart of each pack is an STM32L496 Discovery board and STMod+ Cellular expansion board featuring a Quectel cellular modem. In terms of software, STmicroelectronics supply the ‘Espruino’ embedded JavaScript engine ported to the STM32L496 MCU and an expansion package called X-CUBE-CLD-GEN.

The P-L496G-CELL01 kit has a Quectel UG96 modem for connecting to current worldwide 2G/3G networks (anyone still using these?). The other pack, P-L496G-CELL02 (url t.b.a.), is intended for the emerging LTE Cat M1/NB1 standards a.k.a. NB-IoT, with 2G fallback through its BG96 modem.

STmicro say more packs will be introduced “as demand for different connectivity develops”. 5G, perhaps. Go see these packs at Embedded World 2018, Nuremberg, 27 February - 1 March, Hall 4A, booth 138-238.