audio-wake-word
:::warning [UNTESTED] — v0.5 paper-correct
Builds clean on native_sim/native/64. Real PDM mic capture + Ethos-U55 dispatch + Vela-compiled model land in v0.6 AEN HiL.
:::
Always-on "Hey Alp" keyword spotting on the E1M-AEN family's low-power AI subsystem. Targets the Cortex-M55 HE ("High Efficiency") core at ~50 MHz with the on-die Ethos-U55 NPU bursting convolutions on demand.
Source: examples/audio-wake-word/.
The AEN low-power story
The M55 HE core stays awake 24/7 at low clock running the keyword-spotter front-end; each 50 ms inference window dispatches conv layers to the Ethos-U55 NPU and parks the M55 HE in WFI for the rest of the window. Duty-cycle math: average system power < 1 mW for continuous listening.
board.yaml
som:
sku: E1M-AEN701
preset: e1m-evk
cores:
m55_he:
app: ./src
peripherals: [i2s]
inference: { tensor_arena_kb: 128 }
diagnostics:
log_level: info
PDM mic capture rides Zephyr's audio subsystem (CONFIG_AUDIO_DMIC=y); the application uses the unified <alp/audio.h> surface.