NXP gives Cortex another vote of confidence
NXP's extension of its Cortex-M license is another vote of confidence for what is rapidly becoming the mainstay of the 32bit mcu market. The 32bit core has been licensed by more than 40 companies, including such names as Analog Devices, Freescale, STMicroelectronics, Texas Instruments and Toshiba.
The benefit to mcu developers is that basing their products on Cortex means they don't have to worry about maintaining the core. Instead, they can all concentrate on differentiating their products by adding the various bits and pieces that users need.
There are currently four Cortex-M cores, covering applications requiring low cost to those with complex digital signal control needs. They're all binary compatible and, importantly, they all allow access to the ARM community.
An interesting part of NXP's license extension is that it will now get involved in steering the Cortex-M's future, with a particular focus on energy efficiency and performance. Bearing in mind those two areas are already key ARM targets, it will be interesting to see what NXP's influence might be.
