ARM Community: ARM Cortex-M MCUs: New Partners, Resources, Tools & Books - ARM Community

2012 has been like the last few years: very rich in new ARM® Cortex™-M microcontrollers as well as collateral and tools making it easier to make the most of them. Here is a summary of the year so far, if you have missed any episode!

We will look at the latest member of the family, the ARM Cortex-M0+. Also we will give you an update on the CMSIS (Cortex Microcontroller Software Interface Standard) before looking at what ARM Partners have been up to. Finally we will advise you three reference books for Cortex-M developers.

ARM Cortex-M0+ processor
First, big news for ARM and the embedded community with the launch of the world’s most energy-efficient processor: the ARM Cortex-M0+ core.

For details on this leading product, you can look at the product page, our press release, or Alan’s explanation: ARM Cortex-M0+ and the importance of a plus sign.

The first ARM Cortex-M0+ microcontroller available should be from Freescale on the 25^th September 2012. You can already pre-order a Freescale Freedom development platform for the Kinetis® KL2 series from Element14 exclusively under reference FREEDOM-KL25Z (~£8 / ~$13)

ARM has a webinar available on demand to learn more about the ARM Cortex-M0+ from the horse’s mouth.


CMSIS (Cortex Microcontroller Software Interface Standard)
Initially, CMSIS-CORE was giving the developer an abstraction layer so code would be more easily ported between Cortex-M MCUs. Last year, CMSIS-DSP was added, offering over 60 target optimized functions for all Cortex-M cores but also extracting benefits from the DSP instructions featured in all Cortex-M4 MCUs as well as the optional floating-point unit (FPU).

Naturally, CMSIS was expanded further this year. CMSIS version 3 introduces CMSIS-RTOS. This API standardizes programmer’s code with RTOS thread control, resource and time management. You can download CMSIS for free from arm.com/cmsis.


Partner announcements

ARM Cortex-M4 processors
Infineon Technologies launched their first ARM Cortex-M4 microcontroller at Embedded World. I invite you to discover the family in video and to read how the XMC4500 can implement complex motor control algorithms.


Energy Micro licensed the Cortex-M4 to extend their low power Gecko EFM32 microcontrollers and added more than 240 variants, including the 60 EFM32 Wonder Gecko.

Texas Instruments is now (25^th September) launching a truly low-cost evaluation board. $4.99 can get you a Stellaris® LM4F LaunchPad powered by an ARM Cortex-M4 processor with its FPU. Order now, before the promotion runs out!


ARM Cortex-M3 processors
Silicon Labs also announced their first ARM MCU. The family is called Precision32 and is especially designed for mixed-signal applications. Its patented dual crossbar architecture even allows the application designer to choose the best pin-out to make PCB routing simpler, lower the system cost.

Atmel SAM3 ARM Cortex-M3 was used at Google I/O developer conference for the Android Accessory Development Kit (ADK). This is the latest reference implementation for an Android Open Accessory device! Furthermore Atmel introduced an extra 40 SAM3 devices (16KB-1MB Flash) and ARM support in Atmel® Studio 6 IDE.


ARM Cortex-M0 processors
Early this year, STMicroelectronics, who already had ARM Cortex-M3 & Cortex-M4 microcontrollers, launched their Cortex-M0: STM32 F0 series. I didn’t manage to lay my hands on one. But, if you wish to try STM32F4, STM32F1 or STM32 W series, let me know!


Finally, two new processor licensees joined the community with Sonix now offering the ARM Cortex-M0 in their SN32F700 products. Nordic Semiconductor launched an RF microcontroller called nRF51, also on Cortex-M0.


Learn more about ARM Cortex-M programming
If you are new or wish to have reference books on ARM Cortex-M development, I would like to advise you the following three books with glowing reviews:

• The definitive guide to the ARM Cortex-M0, by Joseph Yiu
• The definitive guide to the ARM Cortex-M3, by Joseph Yiu
• Fast and effective embedded design, by Rob Toulson and Tim Wilmhurst

That last book was very recently published and explains how to use the mbed rapid prototyping platform for easy embedded system development. The former two books are specialized in the core itself: the instruction set, interrupt and exception handling...

Do you have news we should share?
Or do you have questions on where to find ARM microcontroller help?
Let me know!

Alban Rampon - 冉昂理, Partnership Marketing Specialist, ARM, is an electronics engineer experienced in Automotive as well as Consumer and Industrial product design. He loves spending a lot of his time helping engineers worldwide with specialist questions in electronics and microcontrollers/networks in particular. Being a keen trainer helps Alban giving straight and understandable answers, always thriving to the highest standard of quality. Today Alban uses both his technical knowledge and customer dedication to develop and strengthen ARM Connected Community relationships. Through networking and promotion, he helps ARM Partners getting successful products to the market. You are very welcome to drop Alban an email if you have any question or wish to report inappropriate content/behaviour on the Forums/Blogs.