Embedded Systems Blog » Cortex

NXP introduces dual-core ARM Microcontroller

Olaf — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 11:05:22 +0000

The new LPC4000 family of microcontrollers from NXP Semiconductors combines two powerful ARM Cortex cores in one microcontroller. The integrated Cortex-M4 and Cortex-M0 can run asymmetrically at up to 150MHz and have access to internal memory of up to 1MB Flash and 264k of RAM.
A multilayer bus matrix with 4 separate RAM blocks ensures that both microcontrollers have independent, fast access to “their” memory, minimizing wait-states.
Next to the “usual” LPCxxx peripherals the new devices also feature high-speed USB and an AES decryption engine for security.
There are several applications that benefit from a dual core solution. If a lot of communication is required, like handling complex communication protocols with specific timing requirements, a dual-core solutions allows using one core as a communication co-processor, clearly separating communication and process handling.
For more information, see NXP’s web pages.

From Embedded World: trend towards 32bit and ARM continues

Olaf — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 11:53:36 +0000

I was visiting Embedded World this week and in regards to microcontrollers the trend towards 32bit continues. When it comes to marketing presence at a trade show, obviously less than 32bit where not “it” this year. Not only chip manufacturers, but also most of the development tools primarily focused on 32bit solutions. And the next impression one gets walking the aisles: ARM processors are the first choice in this arena, with a focus on the Cortex-M generation. At this year’s Embedded World, no other microcontroller architecture had a marketing presence anywhere near that of ARM.

After the ARM7 and ARM9 generation it is now the ARM Cortex-M processors that are going broad market, more and more chip manufacturers offer and promote derivatives of this architecture. One of the leading “embracers” of the Cortex-Mx is NXP. On the lowest end of this family NXP offers Cortex-M0 derivatives which are aimed at replacing 8 and 16bit microcontrollers and are best suited for lowest power applications. The Cortex-M3 devices are considered mid range and on the high end is the Cortex-M4 offering DSP extensions. Note that the Cortex-M4 was just recently announced and it will take a while until implementations become widely available.

As a tutor conducting various ARM trainings and being involved in tests, benchmarks and reports I am always amazed about how this industry works when promoting performance differences between microcontrollers. Looking at ARM7, ARM9 and Cortex-M variants they indeed have a different performance at the same clock rate, but none of these differences come even close to a factor of two.

In our report Performance Considerations for ARM processor based developments (available at www.esacademystore.eu) we outline where the really big traps and gaps are when trying to boost real-world performance, and it’s not the architecture sub-species. We can show that single decisions that engineers make when developing an embedded application can impact the performance by a factor of ten or more. Selecting a specific ARM processor architecture versus another family pales by comparison.

Of course, there are always some applications where exactly that difference is the one needed to make it work. But for the most part, the majority of embedded applications do not have a very specific performance need and any ARM based microcontroller will do the job and more. Unless, of course, one makes too many bad choices in designing the application. Even the best processor performance can be nullified by poor software!

So even if ARM processors are now “everywhere”, for developers of embedded systems the selection criteria is the same as always: good development tools, right peripheral mix, availability, pricing, trusted partners – your priorities may vary…

From Embedded World: most “fun” evaluation board

Olaf — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 10:26:10 +0000

Whenever a new microcontroller generation comes out, developers and engineers look out for evaluation boards. In order to be able to test the microcontroller, it needs to be mounted on a PCB that has the required glue logic, power circuitry and connectors. For generations, these test boards were mostly “bare-naked” – without housing and only featuring components needed to test the microcontroller in certain types of applications. Over the last years more “attractive” variations of such boards have come to market, for example some looking like a custom USB stick.

Last year, Raisonance released products following a slightly different concept they named Primers, and the Primer2 won an EETimes product of the year 2009 award. These boards feature a complete housing, making them more attractive for various prototype developments. Through staging several design contests, many applications have been implemented and are now shared on the product’s web page. Applications include an alcohol meter, a CAN monitor, a GPS displaying OpenStreetMap data, various games and many more.

At this years Embedded World, Raisonance introduced the next generation, the Open4 Primer. The most obvious changes are that the new housing is a bit bigger and gives a much sturdier impression. It offers more room for custom extensions as the space for daughter boards is bigger as well. The color display with touchscreen is about twice the size of the previous version, providing more screen space for visualizations. All primers use microcontrollers from ST, the latest Open4 has an STM32E which is a Cortex-M3 derivative.

There is hardly a more fun platform to evaluate a Cortex-M3 microcontroller.