WhitepaperCopyright©2013-2017ARMLimitedoritsaffiliates.Allrightsreserved.Page1of28ARMCortex-MforBeginnersAnoverviewoftheARMCortex-MprocessorfamilyandcomparisonJosephYiu,SeniorEmbeddedTechnologyManager,ARMMarch2017WhitepaperCopyright©2013-2017ARMLimitedoritsaffiliates.Allrightsreserved.Page2of28AbstractTheARMCortex-Mfamilynowhaseightprocessors.Inthispaper,wecomparethefeaturesofvariousCortex-Mprocessorsandhighlightconsiderationsforselectingthecorrectprocessorforyourapplication.ThepaperincludesdetailedcomparisonsoftheCortex-Minstructionsetsandadvancedinterruptcapabilities,alongwithsystem-levelfeatures,debugandtracefeatures,andperformancecomparisons.1OverviewToday,thereareeightmembersintheARMCortex-Mprocessorfamily.Inaddition,therearemanyotherARMprocessorsintheARMproductportfolio.Formanybeginners,orevenforexperiencedchipdesignerswhoarenotfamiliarwithARMarchitecture,thiscanbeabitconfusing.Differentprocessorscanhavedifferentinstructionsetsupport,systemfeaturesandperformance.Inthisarticle,IamgoingtocapturethekeydifferencesbetweenvariousCortex-Mprocessors,andhowtheycomparetootherARMprocessors.1.1TheARMprocessorfamilyOvertheyears,ARMhasdevelopedquiteanumberofdifferentprocessorproducts.Inthefollowingdiagram(Figure1),theARMprocessorsaredividedbetweentheclassicARMprocessorsandthenewerCortexprocessorproductrange.Inaddition,theseprocessorsaredividedintothreegroupsbasedontheapplicationspaces:ApplicationProcessors–High-endprocessorsformobilecomputing,smartphone,servers,etc.Theseprocessorsrunathigherclockfrequency(over1GHz),andsupportMemoryManagementUnit(MMU),whichisrequiredforfullfeatureOSsuchasLinux,Android,MSWindowsandmobileOSs.IfyouareplanningtodevelopaproductthatrequiresoneoftheseOSs,youneedtouseanapplicationprocessor.Real-timeProcessors–Theseareveryhigh-performanceprocessorsforreal-timeapplicationssuchasharddiskcontroller,automotivepowertrainandbasebandcontrolinwirelesscommunications.MostoftheseprocessorsdonothaveMMU,andusuallyhaveMemoryProtectionUnit(MPU),cache,andothe...
