Which ARM Processor with Gigabit Ethernet Support Should I Choose?

Hello everyone,

For years, I've been using Atmel SAM3N and SAM4N series processors with Atmel Studio 6.2 for free. I also have some experience with SAME70. I've been very satisfied with both the processors and the development environment.

I have never used RTOS or Linux; I’ve always written C/C++ code directly via the IDE.

Unfortunately, none of these older series support Gigabit Ethernet. I am now looking for an ARM processor with Gigabit Ethernet support.

Another important consideration, besides hardware capabilities, is software support and the availability of a free IDE or something like MBED.

Below, I have listed some high-performance ARM Cortex-A7 and Cortex-A9 processors and the free IDEs available for them:

Manufacturer Series IDE
STMicroelectronics STM32MP1 (A7) STM32Cube
NXP (Freescale) i.MX 6ULL and LPC (A7) MCUXpresso
TI AM335x and AM437x (A9) Code Composer Studio
Renesas RZ/A Series (A9) e² studio
Microchip (Atmel) SAMA5 (A5) MPLAB X IDE
Raspberry Pi Compute Cortex-A7 and A53 VS Code

Which processor with free software support would you recommend?

Best regards,