ARM and STMicro join with Mathworks to support Cortex-M MCUs

ARM and STMicroelectronics have announced the availability of the first ever Embedded Coder support, with MATLAB and Simulink, for ARM Cortex-M processor-based systems.

The joint project between ST and ARM is fully supported by MathWorks and enables software developers to create their algorithms in MATLAB and Simulink and then target, integrate, debug and test those models in a Processor In the Loop (PIL) simulation. The generated C code from Embedded Coder runs on an STM32 Evaluation Board and the debugger of the Keil Microcontroller Development Kit (MDK-ARM) interfaces directly with Simulink, further simplifying the code integration.

“Based on strong customer demand for MATLAB and Simulink support, ST aggressively developed the capabilities to go beyond pure Cortex-M processor support by creating additional peripheral blocks, further simplifying the PIL process,” said Michel Buffa, General Manager Microcontroller Division, STMicroelectronics. “Moreover, enabling DSP-standard tools to run on our Cortex-M processor-based STM32 products helps our customers address a broader spectrum of opportunities.”

“This initiative enables developers to easily and efficiently develop and explore numerous models before generating optimized code for their Cortex processor-based projects,” said Richard York, Director of Embedded Systems Marketing, ARM. “The combination of MATLAB and Simulink, and the Keil MDK-ARM brings together two of the best software development toolchains.  This is good news for developers as it will enable them to accelerate the time to market for innovative Cortex processor-based systems and products.”

“MathWorks is pleased to have worked with ARM and ST to put in place the first Embedded Coder code generation support for Cortex-M processor-based systems and the Keil MDK-ARM,” said Paul Barnard, design automation marketing director, MathWorks. “This is a very important first step in providing a smooth design flow for engineers using Model-Based Design with MATLAB and Simulink to develop highly optimized Cortex-M processor-based systems.”

Demonstration at Embedded World
A demonstration of the new capabilities will be shown at the Embedded World 2013 event in Nuremberg (26-28 February) on the ARM (4-336), ST (4-140) and MathWorks (4-110) stands.

Availability
The new Embedded Coder support is now available in beta form direct from ARM for early adopters and is planned to be made available for general download in April.
 

---

If you found this article to be interest, visit Microcontroller / MCU Designline where – in addition to my Max's Cool Beans blogs on all sorts of "stuff" – you will find the latest and greatest design, technology, product, and news articles with regard to all aspects of designing and using microcontrollers.

Also, you can obtain a highlights update delivered directly to your inbox by signing up for my weekly newsletter – just Click Here to request this newsletter using the Manage Newsletters tab (if you aren't already a member you'll be asked to register, but it's free and painless so don't let that stop you [grin]).

Last but certainly not least, make sure you check out all of the discussions and other information resources at All Programmable Planet. For example, in addition to blogs by yours truly, microcontroller expert Duane Benson is learning how to use FPGAs to augment (sometimes replace) the MCUs in his robot (and other) projects.