Arm Cortex-M Series Processors

The Cortex-M processor family is optimized for cost and power-efficient microcontrollers. These processors are found in a variety of applications, including IoT, industrial and every day consumer devices.

The processor family is based on the M-Profile architecture that provides low-latency and a highly deterministic operation, for deeply embedded systems. The latest generation of this architecture is the Armv8.1-M that includes a vector extension called Arm Helium technology. Helium brings enhanced levels of machine learning and signal processing performance to the next wave of small embedded devices, including audio devices, wearables and sensor hubs.

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  • Cortex-M35P

    A tamper-resistant Cortex-M processor with optional software isolation using TrustZone for Armv8-M.

  • Cortex-M33

    The Arm Cortex-M33 processor has an ideal blend of real-time determinism, efficiency and security.

  • Cortex-M23

    The Arm Cortex-M23 is the smallest and lowest power microcontroller with TrustZone security.

  • Cortex-M7

    The Arm Cortex-M7 processor is the highest performance member of the energy-efficient Cortex-M processor family.

  • Cortex-M4

    The Arm Cortex-M4 processor implements a good blend of control and performance for mixed-signal devices.

  • Cortex-M3

    The Arm Cortex-M3 processor is the industry-leading 32-bit processor for highly deterministic real-time applications.

  • Cortex-M1

    The Arm Cortex-M1 processor targets FPGA devices. It is available to access instantly with DesignStart FPGA.

  • Cortex-M0+

    The Arm Cortex-M0+ processor is the most energy efficient Arm processor available.

  • Cortex-M0

    The Arm Cortex-M0 processor is the smallest Arm processor available.
Cortex-M comparison table
Feature  Cortex-M0 Cortex-M0+ Cortex-M1 Cortex-M23 Cortex-M3 Cortex-M4  Cortex-M33 Cortex-M35P  Cortex-M7 
Instruction Set Architecture  Armv6-M Armv6-M
 Armv6-M
 Armv8-M Baseline 
 Armv7-M Armv7-M
 Armv8-M Mainline
 Armv8-M Mainline
 Armv7-M
Thumb, Thumb-2  Thumb, Thumb-2
 Thumb, Thumb-2
 Thumb, Thumb-2
 Thumb, Thumb-2
 Thumb, Thumb-2
 Thumb,
Thumb-2
 Thumb,
Thumb-2
 Thumb,
Thumb-2
DMIPS/MHz range*
 0.87-1.27  0.95-1.36  0.8
 0.98 1.25-1.89  1.25-1.95  1.5  1.5  2.14-3.23
CoreMark®/MHz*
 2.33 2.46  1.85
 2.64 3.34 3.42  4.02 4.02 5.01
Pipeline Stages
 3  2  3  2  3  3  3  3  6 
Memory Protection Unit (MPU)  No  Yes (option) No  Yes (option)
(2 x) 		 Yes (option)  Yes (option)  Yes (option)
(2 x) 		 Yes (option)
(2 x) 		 Yes (option) 
Maximum MPU Regions  0  8  0  16  8  8  16  16  16 
Trace (ETM or MTB)  No  MTB (option)  No  MTB (option) or 
ETMv3 (option) 		 ETMv3 (option)  ETMv3 (option)  MTB (option) and/or
ETMv4 (option) 		 MTB (option) and/or
ETMv4 (option)  		ETMv4 (option)
Digital Signal Processing (DSP) No  No  No  No  No Yes  Yes (option) Yes (option)  Yes 
Floating Point Hardware  No No  No  No  No Yes (option SP) Yes (option SP)  Yes (option SP)  Yes
(option SP + DP) 
Systick Timer
 Yes (option)  Yes (option)  Yes (option)  Yes (2 x)  Yes Yes Yes (2 x) Yes (2 x) Yes
Built-in Caches  No No No  No No No No  Yes (option 2- 16kB Yes (option 4-64kB 
 I-cache I-cache, D-cache) 
Tightly Coupled Memory  No  No  Yes  No  No  No  No  No  Yes
(option 0-16MB
I-TCM/D-TCM) 
TrustZone for Armv8-M
 No No No Yes (option)  No  No  Yes (option) Yes (option)  No 
Co-processor Interface  No  No  No  No  No  No  Yes (option)  Yes (option)  No 
Bus Protocol
 AHB Lite  AHB Lite, Fast I/O  AHB Lite  AHB5, Fast I/O  AHB Lite, APB   AHB Lite, APB  AHB5, APB AHB5, APB AXI4, AHB Lite, APB, TCM
Wake-up Interrupt Controller Support
 Yes Yes  No  Yes  Yes  Yes  Yes  Yes  Yes 
Integrated Interrupt Controller (NVIC)
 Yes  Yes  Yes  Yes  Yes  Yes  Yes Yes  Yes 
Maximum # External Interrupts
 32  32  32  240  240  240  480 480 240  
Hardware Divide  No No  No  Yes  Yes  Yes  Yes  Yes Yes 
Single Cycle Multiply
 Yes (option) Yes (option)  No  Yes  Yes  Yes  Yes  Yes  Yes 
CMSIS Support
 Yes  Yes  Yes  Yes  Yes  Yes  Yes  Yes  Yes 
Dual Core Lock-Step Support
 No No No Yes  No No Yes Yes  Yes 

*See individual Cortex-M product pages for further information.

SP = Single Precision

DP = Double Precision

Machine Learning on Cortex-M

Machine learning support for Arm Cortex-M microcontrollers is provided by TensorFlow Lite Micro. Further optimization is available via CMSIS-NN, a collection of efficient neural network kernels developed to maximize the performance and minimize the memory footprint of neural networks on Cortex-M processor cores.

Download CMSIS-NN Machine Learning Resources

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  • Cortex-M Resources

    List of useful links and resources for developers designing with Cortex-M processors.

    Read here
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  • Designing a SoC with Cortex-M

    Read this white paper to learn how to design a system-on-chip with Cortex-M processors.

    Read here