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.

Learn more

Useful Resources

Type Title
Blog Cortex-M resources by Joseph Yiu
Blog Machine Learning on Cortex-M
Blog Cortex-M3 - The core of the Internet of Things
White paper Designing a SoC with an Arm Cortex-M processor
Webinar Machine learning on embedded and resource-constrained end nodes for the IoT

  • 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 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
 0.99  1.25-1.89  1.25-1.95  1.5  1.5  2.14-3.23
CoreMark®/MHz**
 2.33 2.46  1.85
 2.5 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)
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  AHB5 AXI4, AHB Lite, APB, TCM
Wake-up interrupt controller support
 Yes Yes  No  Yes  Yes  Yes  Yes  Yes  Yes 
Integrated interrupt controller
 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