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ARM Cortex-M3

Cortex-M0
Instruction set Thumb-1 (most),
Thumb-2 (some)
Microarchitecture ARMv6-M
Cortex-M0+
Instruction set Thumb-1 (most),
Thumb-2 (some)
Microarchitecture ARMv6-M
Cortex-M1
Instruction set Thumb-1 (most),
Thumb-2 (some)
Microarchitecture ARMv6-M
Cortex-M3
Instruction set Thumb-1, Thumb-2,
Saturated (some)
Microarchitecture ARMv7-M
Cortex-M4(F)
Instruction set Thumb-1, Thumb-2,
Saturated, DSP,
FPU (SP)
Microarchitecture ARMv7E-M
Cortex-M7(F)
Instruction set Thumb-1, Thumb-2,
Saturated, DSP,
FPU (SP & DP)
Microarchitecture ARMv7E-M
Cortex-M23
Instruction set Thumb-1 (most),
Thumb-2 (some),
Divide, TrustZone
Microarchitecture ARMv8-M
Cortex-M33(F)
Instruction set Thumb-1, Thumb-2,
Saturated, DSP,
FPU (SP), TrustZone
Microarchitecture ARMv8-M

The ARM Cortex-M is a group of 32-bit RISC ARM processor cores licensed by ARM Holdings for microcontroller use. The cores consist of the Cortex-M0, Cortex-M0+, Cortex-M1, Cortex-M3, Cortex-M4(F), Cortex-M7(F), Cortex-M23, Cortex-M33(F). If the Cortex-M4 / M7 / M33 silicon has the FPU option, then the core is known as the Cortex-M4F / Cortex-M7F / Cortex-M33F. ARM Cortex-M cores have been shipped in tens of billions of devices.

The ARM Cortex-M family are ARM microprocessor cores which are designed for use in microcontrollers, ASICs, ASSPs, and SoC. Cortex-M cores are commonly used as dedicated microcontroller chips, but also are "hidden" inside of SoC chips as power management controllers, I/O controllers, system controllers, touch screen controllers, smart battery controllers, and sensors controllers.

Though 8-bit microcontrollers were very popular in the past, Cortex-M has slowly been chipping away at the 8-bit market as the prices of low-end Cortex-M chips have moved downward. Cortex-M have become a popular replacements for 8-bit chips in applications that benefit from 32-bit math operations, and replacing older legacy ARM cores such as ARM7 and ARM9.

ARM Holdings neither manufactures nor sells CPU devices based on its own designs, but rather licenses the processor architecture to interested parties. ARM offers a variety of licensing terms, varying in cost and deliverables. To all licensees, ARM provides an integratable hardware description of the ARM core, as well as complete software development toolset and the right to sell manufactured silicon containing the ARM CPU.

Integrated device manufacturers (IDM) receive the ARM Processor IP as synthesizable RTL (written in Verilog). In this form, they have the ability to perform architectural level optimizations and extensions. This allows the manufacturer to achieve custom design goals, such as higher clock speed, very low power consumption, instruction set extensions, optimizations for size, debug support, etc. To determine which components have been included in a particular ARM CPU chip, consult the manufacturer datasheet and related documentation.


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