Cortex-M7

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

Block Diagram on Cortex-7.

Getting Started

The Cortex-M7 enables partners to build the most sophisticated variety of MCUs and embedded SoCs. It has been designed to deliver a very high level of performance, while maintaining the excellent responsiveness and ease-of-use of the Armv7-M architecture. Its industry leading high-performance and flexible system interfaces are ideal for a wide variety of application areas including automotive, industrial automation, medical devices, high-end audio, image and voice processing, sensor fusion, advanced motor control and in the deployment of the Internet of Things (IoT).

Specifications

Architecture Harvard
ISA Support Armv7-M
Pipeline 6-stage superscalar + branch prediction
DSP Extensions
 Single cycle 16/32-bit MAC
Single cycle dual 16-bit MAC
8/16-bit SIMD arithmetic
Hardware Divide (2-12 Cycles)
Floating-Point Unit
 Optional single and double precision floating point unit
IEEE 754 compliant
Interconnect
 64-bit AMBA4 AXI, AHB peripheral port
Instruction cache
 0 to 64 kB, 2-way associative with optional ECC
Data cache
 0 to 64 kB, 4-way associative with optional ECC
Instruction TCM
 0 to 16 MB with optional ECC
Data TCM
 0 to 16 MB with optional ECC
Memory Protection
 Optional 8 or 16 region MPU with sub regions and background region
Interrupts Non-maskable Interrupt (NMI) + 1 to 240 physical interrupts
Interrupt Priority Levels
 8 to 256 priority levels
Wake-up Interrupt Controller
 Up to 240 Wake-up Interrupts
Sleep Modes
 Integrated WFI and WFE Instructions and Sleep On Exit capability.
Sleep & Deep Sleep Signals.
Optional Retention Mode with Arm Power Management Kit
Debug
 Integrated Instructions
Debug
 Optional JTAG and Serial Wire Debug ports. Up to 8 Breakpoints and 4 Watchpoints.

Trace

 Optional Instruction Trace (ETM), Micro Trace Buffer (MTB), Data Trace (DWT), and Instrumentation Trace (ITM)

Compare all Cortex-M processors

Characteristics

Performance Efficiency: 5 CoreMark/MHz* and 2.14 / 2.55 / 3.23 DMIPS/MHz**

Arm Cortex-M7 implementation data*** 
  28 HPM
(9-track, typical 0.9v, 85°C)
Dynamic Power
  33 µW/MHz
Floorplan Area
  0.067mm2

* CoreMark 1.0 : IAR Embedded Workbench v7.30.1 --endian=little --cpu=Cortex-M7 -e -Ohs --use_c++_inline --no_size_constraints / Code in TCM - Data in TCM.

** The first result abides by all of the “ground rules” laid out in the Dhrystone documentation, the second permits inlining of functions, not just the permitted C string libraries, while the third additionally permits simultaneous (”multi-file”) compilation. All are with the original (K&R) v2.1 of Dhrystone.

*** Base usable configuration includes 1 IRQ + NMI, excludes ETM, MPU, FPU and debug.

 

  • Manual containing technical information.

  • Cortex-M7 Technical Reference Manual

    The complete reference manual for system development, verification and programming on Cortex-M7 based SoCs.

    Download
  • A program that is running on a desktop.

  • White Paper: Cortex-M for beginners

    This White Paper compares the features of various Cortex-M processors and describes how to select the right processor for the application.

    Read here
  • A guide on software optimization.

  • Embedded Development Tools for Cortex-M Series

    Arm and its ecosystem partners provide a wide range of tools for embedded software development on Arm Cortex-M processors.

    Learn more

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 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             

Get Support

Arm Support

Arm training courses and on-site system-design advisory services enable licensees to efficiently integrate the Cortex-M7 processor into their design to realize maximum system performance with lowest risk and fastest time-to-market.

Arm training courses  Arm Design Reviews  Open a support case

Related IP

The Cortex-M7 processor is usually incorporated into a SoC using a broad range of Arm technology including System IP and Physical IP. It is fully supported by Arm development tools. Related IP includes:

 

Compatible IP
 Tools
 Software

Cortex-M System Design Kit

Socrates System Builder

AMBA System Controllers

DS-5 Development Studio

Arm Keil MDK software development tool

Arm Cortex-M7 Software Development Support

Cortex-M Prototyping System

Cortex Microcontroller Software Interface Standard

Arm Mbed Pelion Device Management

 

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