ARM extends Cortex-M range into digital signal control market

According to Shyam Sadasivan, product marketing manager within ARM's processor division, a number of market segments have a 'significant requirement' for digital signal control, including motor control and embedded audio. He added these markets had significant bandwidth requirements and contended that general purpose microcontrollers were now struggling to meet those needs. "This core is at least twice as efficient as competitive 16 and 32bit mcus with dsp extensions," he added. The Cortex-M4 is said to bring together 'typical mcu and dsp features'. Amongst the dsp capabilities are a single cycle MAC and a barrel shifter, with a single precision floating point unit available as an option. "If you're running a signal processing algorithm, it will take fewer cycles than competitive devices," Sadasivan contended. Energy efficiency has been a design criterion. "But not at the expense of MHz or mW," Sadasivan continued. "We are allowing users to do more with what's available." ARM is launching the core in association with five leading mcu companies, including Texas Instruments. Two of the lead partners are said to be new ARM licensees. Jean Anne Booth, worldwide director of Stellaris marketing for TI, said the company would be adding Cortex-M4 based parts to the Stellaris range. "We are using the Cortex-M4 because of the single precision floating point capability. It will make systems work more accurately and will enable PID control loops to work without saturation issues. In particular, users will be able to measure angles more accurately in field oriented control applications." Programmable in C and capable of running at up to 150MHz, the Cortex-M4 is said to consume less than 40µW/MHz on a 65nm process.