STMicroelectronics Introduces 32 b Family Powered by ARM Cortex-M3 Core for Embedded Systems
June 18, 2007 // Published as a news service by IHS
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STMicroelectronics (ST) announced a family of 32 b flash microcontrollers (MCUs) based on the ARM Cortex-M3 core - a core with features designed for embedded applications requiring high performance (1.25 Dhrystone million instructions per second [MIPS]/MHz), low power and low cost.
The family is aimed at applications such as industrial product lifecycles (PLCs), domestic appliances, domestic and industrial security, fire and heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems and consumer/PC applications such as card readers and biometrics.
It also can be used for portable applications such as glucose and cholesterol monitors.
According to ST, its STM32 family benefits from Cortex-M3 architectural enhancements including the Thumb-2 instruction set to provide improved performance, better code density and a tightly coupled nested vectored interrupt controller for faster response to interrupts.
The STM32 is offered in two lines:
- The STM32F103 performance line, with 72 MHz clock frequency and 32 b MCU performance.
- The STM32F101 access line, with 36 MHz clock frequency. ST said it offers users of 16 b devices increased performance at 16 b price levels.
Both lines offer from 32 K to 128 K of embedded Flash memory but differ in maximum static random access memory (SRAM) size and peripheral combinations. At 72 MHz, executing from Flash, the STM32 consumes 36 mA.
Features of the Cortex-M3 core include:
- A nested vector-interrupt controller with down to six central processing unit (CPU) cycles inter-interrupt latency.
- Atomic bit manipulation allowing individual bits to be modified in a single write operation.
- Branch speculation.
- Single-cycle multiply.
- Hardware divide.
- The Thumb 2 instruction set.
The STM32 operates from a 2.0 volt (V) to 3.6 V power supply and has a power consumption down to 2 microamps in standby mode with reset circuitry active. Other power-saving features include an integrated real-time clock (RTC) with dedicated pin for battery operation and a dedicated 32 kHz oscillator and four low-power modes, ST said.
Source: STMicroelectronics (ST).