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Moving from AVR to ARM's

Matt Smith
Note: This was originally posted on 6th June 2012 at http://forums.arm.com

So Im a Entry level Firmware Dev., i've been working with Arduino's/AVR's and PICS for a good few years. Im a pretty good C/C++ Programmer and Can understand ASM (At least for AVR) Pretty well. I understand circuits pretty well too (Well....as well as someone would need to working with MC's and such).

At work we use ARM's however, and while I don't directly deal with them...it's something i'd like to do. However Im at a loss at where to start. I know there are ARM Microprocessors and MCU's as well. I've seen a few of the TI boards around work (Mainly http://www.ti.com/tool/ek-lm4f232) the Stellaris Kits.

Where would be a good place to start? Probably something Simple since I know the ARM is prolly not as easy as Dealing with AVR's and PICS haha. But there are SOOO many different ones to choose from....and even more-so on the development kits. It's a bit overwhelming. Along with a bunch of different toolchains (Which im totally not used to).

I realize this question has been asked a million times, and I did search. But New MCU's/MP's come out yearly......and I figure a more up to date question would be worth the slight annoyance haha!.
I've heard the Cortex-M3's are probably the easiest to start with, but that's just what i've heard, not to mention I don't know what Eval Kits/Dev boards would be best.

Bonus Question: For someone Starting in ARM Development, what are the 2 best books you could think of as an accompanying guide.
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  • Arm Employee Badge
    Note: This was originally posted on 7th June 2012 at http://forums.arm.com

    If you want to do sensors valves and servos then I'd start off with something like the Cortex-M3 with an mbed type device (if only because it means you can avoid the soldering and just use breadboard until you have an idea you want to make permanent). The instruction set is different to the Cortex-A and R ARM cores, and they have a simplified exception model for interrupt handling, but this is mainly because the core is designed so you can avoid assembler (you can even write the interrupt handlers in plain old C).

    You won't have some of the "higher level" functionality such as ethernet out of the box with mbed I don't think, but there are a number of example projects on the mbed website which have hooked up to Twitter via some additional hardware, so it must be possible =)

    In terms of books I have a couple on my shelf:

    For the Cortex-M series I'd highly recommend:
    http://www.amazon.co.uk/Definitive-Guide-Cortex-M3-Embedded-Technology/dp/0750685344

    While now slightly dated (it is mostly ARM7 and ARM9, so a couple of generations behind, but covers the essential "Big OS" principles such as caches and MMUs from the ground up) the ARM System Developer Guide covers the bigger cores:
    http://www.amazon.co.uk/ARM-System-Developers-Guide-Architecture/dp/1558608745

    You can also register on the ARM website for the Cortex-A Series Programmer Guide, which is a good update to the newer cores. http://infocenter.arm.com/help/topic/com.arm.doc.den0013b/index.html

    Cheers,
    Iso
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  • Arm Employee Badge
    Note: This was originally posted on 7th June 2012 at http://forums.arm.com

    If you want to do sensors valves and servos then I'd start off with something like the Cortex-M3 with an mbed type device (if only because it means you can avoid the soldering and just use breadboard until you have an idea you want to make permanent). The instruction set is different to the Cortex-A and R ARM cores, and they have a simplified exception model for interrupt handling, but this is mainly because the core is designed so you can avoid assembler (you can even write the interrupt handlers in plain old C).

    You won't have some of the "higher level" functionality such as ethernet out of the box with mbed I don't think, but there are a number of example projects on the mbed website which have hooked up to Twitter via some additional hardware, so it must be possible =)

    In terms of books I have a couple on my shelf:

    For the Cortex-M series I'd highly recommend:
    http://www.amazon.co.uk/Definitive-Guide-Cortex-M3-Embedded-Technology/dp/0750685344

    While now slightly dated (it is mostly ARM7 and ARM9, so a couple of generations behind, but covers the essential "Big OS" principles such as caches and MMUs from the ground up) the ARM System Developer Guide covers the bigger cores:
    http://www.amazon.co.uk/ARM-System-Developers-Guide-Architecture/dp/1558608745

    You can also register on the ARM website for the Cortex-A Series Programmer Guide, which is a good update to the newer cores. http://infocenter.arm.com/help/topic/com.arm.doc.den0013b/index.html

    Cheers,
    Iso
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