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White Paper: Cortex-M for Beginners - An overview of the Arm Cortex-M processor family and comparison

Ping Zuo 左平
Ping Zuo 左平
September 13, 2016
Less than one minute read time.

by Joseph Yiu

Abstract

The Arm Cortex-M family now has five processors. In this paper, we compare the features of various Cortex-M processors and highlight considerations for selecting the correct processor for your application. The paper includes detailed comparisons of the Cortex-M instruction sets and advanced interrupt capabilities, along with system-level features, debug and trace features, and performance comparisons.

Update 21 June 2017

Since writing this block we have announced further additions to the Cortex family, Cortex-M23 and Cortex-M33, and updated the document. The latest version is available here: Cortex-M for Beginners - An overview of the Arm Cortex-M processor family and comparison (2017).

Arm Cortex-M23 and Cortex-M33 are the first embedded processors using  the Armv8-M architecture, bringing the proven secure foundation of Arm TrustZone to the most constrained IoT nodes.

Download the White Paper - Cortex-M for Beginners

White Paper - Cortex-M for Beginners - 2016 (final v3).pdf
Anonymous
  • Joseph Yiu
    Joseph Yiu over 9 years ago

    Well spotted Ashar, Carlos!

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  • Carlos Delfino
    Carlos Delfino over 9 years ago

    This is to see if we are actually reading the text. :D

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  • Joseph Yiu
    Joseph Yiu over 9 years ago

    Ah, exception type should be up to 255 in figure 8. It is an error in my diagram!

    I have just emailed Ping Zuo the updated version, as she is the page owner, the pdf need to be updated by her.

    regards,

    joseph

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  • Carlos Delfino
    Carlos Delfino over 9 years ago

    I was considering that the IRQ number and the exception would be the same, is that the diagram of Figure 8 gives understand, and did not consider that the exception count starts when it comes to user IRQs, starting the exception 16, so should not the column "Exception Type" count to 254? For Armv6-M is correct (31), but for the Armv7-M is outdated. Ie 240 user IRQs and 16 exceptions system.

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  • Carlos Delfino
    Carlos Delfino over 9 years ago

    At the time paste for any reason was wrong the link.

    Thanks for the correction, @goodwin .

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