Useful Resources
Cortex-M documentation
and resources: Joseph Yiu's blog
Machine Learning on
Cortex-M: Read our blog
Amiko's AI-powered sensors, based on Cortex-M:
Read our case study
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Cortex-M33
The Arm Cortex-M33 processor is the first feature rich implementation of the Armv8-M architecture. -
Cortex-M23
The Arm Cortex-M23 processor is the smallest and most energy efficient implementation of the Armv8-M architecture. -
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 is Arm’s high performance embedded processor. -
Cortex-M3
The Arm Cortex-M3 processor is the industry-leading 32-bit processor for highly deterministic real-time applications. -
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. -
Arm DesignStart
Design and produce an SoC with the widely-deployed Cortex-M0 and Cortex-M3 processors with no upfront license fee. -
SC000 Processor
The Arm SecurCore SC000 processor is designed specifically for the highest-volume smartcard and embedded security applications. -
SC300 Processor
The Arm SecurCore SC300 processor is designed specifically for high performance smartcard and embedded security applications.
Cortex-M Series Comparison
|
Cortex-M0 |
Cortex-M0+ |
Cortex-M3 |
Cortex-M4 |
Cortex-M7 |
Cortex-M23 |
Cortex-M33 |
|
|
Instruction set architecture |
Armv6-M |
Armv6-M |
Armv7-M |
Armv7-M |
Armv7-M |
Armv8-M baseline |
Armv8-M mainline |
|
DMIPS/MHz range* |
0.87-1.27 |
0.95-1.36 |
1.25-1.89 |
1.25-1.95 |
2.14-3.23 |
0.98-in progress |
1.50-in progress |
|
CoreMark®/MHz** |
2.33 |
2.46 |
3.34 |
3.42 |
5.01 |
2.50 |
3.86 |
|
Memory Protection Unit (MPU) |
No |
Yes (option) |
Yes (option) |
Yes (option) |
Yes (option) |
Yes (option)(2 x) |
Yes (option)(2 x) |
|
Trace (ETM or MTB) |
No |
MTB (option) |
ETMv3 (option) |
ETMv3 (option) |
ETMv4 (option) |
MTB (option) or ETMv3 |
MTB (option) and/or ETMv4 |
|
DSP |
No |
No |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
Yes (option) |
|
Floating point hardware |
No |
No |
No |
Yes (option SP) |
Yes (option) 1. SP or 2. SP+DP |
No |
Yes (option) |
|
Systick Timer |
Yes (option) |
Yes (option) |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes (2 x) |
Yes (2 x) |
|
CMSIS Support |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Built-in caches |
No |
No |
No |
No |
Yes (option 4-64kB I- and D-cache) |
No |
No |
|
Tightly-coupled memory |
No |
No |
No |
No |
Yes (option 0-16MB I-TCM/D-TCM) |
No |
No |
|
TrustZone for Armv8-M |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
Yes (option) |
Yes (option) |
|
Co-processor interface |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
Yes (option) |
*The lower result abides by all of the “ground rules” laid out in the Dhrystone documentation while the upper bound additionally permits simultaneous (”multi-file”) compilation.
**Cortex-M23 and Cortex-M33 results are preliminary. The others are published on the EEMBC website.
IDEs and Tool Suites for Embedded Software Development
Arm provides two main software development tool suites for assembly, C and C++. Keil MDK-Arm is best suited to commercial, off-the-shelf embedded microcontrollers. DS-5 Development Studio is best suited to Arm application processors and custom SoC designs.
IDEsDS-5 Development Studio | Keil MDK-Arm | Tools from Arm's Partners | Tools from Mbed
CompilersArm Compiler 5 | Arm Compiler 6 | GCC
Debug Probes