ARM launches M4 signal-control MCU core

LONDON &$151; ARM Holdings plc (Cambridge, England) has announced the launch of the Cortex-M4 microcontroller core for use in digital signal control and that the core has been licensed by five companies including NXP, STMicroelectronics and Texas Instruments. The Cortex-M4 processor extends the use of Cortex-M cores to applications requiring intensive mathematical computation.

The M4 has been designed for use in motor control, automotive, power management, embedded audio, and industrial automation markets, ARM said.

The Cortex-M4 features a single-cycle multiply-accumulate (MAC) unit, optimized single instruction multiple data (SIMD) instructions, saturating arithmetic instructions and an optional single precision Floating-Point Unit (FPU). The 32-bit processor core is capable of 1.25-DMIPS/MHz for Thumb-2 instructions.

The Cortex-M4 processor is supported by the ARM physical IP portfolio, which includes the Cortex-M low-power optimization package for the TSMC CE018FG process, which is otherwise known as 180-nm ULL [ultra low leakage].

For a target clock frequency of 150-MHz ARM physical IP for the GlobalFoundries' 65LPe 65-nm process enables a standard implementation of the Cortex-M4 processor within 65,000 gates and a dynamic power consumption of less than 40-microwatts/MHz. The FPU, if included, adds only 25,000 gates said ARM.