Cortex M3 and ARM news

[mark]

Hi All

I have just been reading an article where the CEO of ARM, Warren East, admitted that the progress with the Cortex M3 core has been slow. In terms of unit shippments it stood at just over 100'000 around the beginning of 2008 (I wonder how many of these are chalked down to Luminary??).

However he said that momentum is picking up. Obviously, as well as STMicroelectronics, other larger microcontroller suppliers - NXP and Toshiba - are now also licensees for the M3.

A rather strange statement is then quoted from the general manager of the microcontroller product line at NXP, Geoff Lees, who says that their ARM7 family has been a runaways success and there is a huge demand for ARM cores.
But then... "I don't see than much difference between the specific cores, just a general demand for ARM"
Hmmm.... Is that a typical manager type statement or does he know something we don't??

Regards

Mark

[blaise70]

Hi Mark,

I think You are right it is a manager statement. AFAIK NXP just started (second half of last year, after a more than one year delay) to ship theirs new LPC23xx and LPC24xx ARM7 cored stuff. Do You think they will come out with a Cortex version until this new kids did not get some money back?
The other thing that as I know currently Luminary and STM who are shipping Cortex cored mcus, so the market is not flodded with Cortex suppliers. I can imagine that NXP will leave them some time (a year) to see how they can perform and build the experiences into theirs own product.
Third thing that I can imagine some areas where ARM7 will be used. Is I know Cortex is not designed to support external memory or at least currently there is no mcu available with EMI peipheral. If You need an mcu with EMI You should bet on an ARM7 or ARM9 cored one. (Please correct me if I wrong.)
Time will tell.
For a new product I would (I have) choose(n) a Cortex cored mcu. If You need USB then STM32, if You need Ethernet than Luminary. The other peripherals are almost the same. Both supplier provides one quite complex software library.

Sorry for my long reply, but I'm also intrested in others opinion and hope this reply will insist some of them to share what they think.
Thanks,
Blaise

PS: Have You planned to port Your great project to STM32 as well? Or not until it will also has a member in the family with built in ethernet. (If STM plans any.)

[mark]

Hi Blaise

Thanks for your comments!!

>>If You need an mcu with EMI You should bet on an ARM7 or ARM9 cored one
I can not comment (without studying in more detail) since my interest is not in the EMI capability so I didn't take a gread deal of notice about that point. Once chips have external memory it opens up a lot of new options such as uCLinux etc. - the uTasker concentrates on small footprint as priority and so is well suited to chips without EMI.

However I like the (often reduced) memory interfaces - some have 8 or 16 bit bus whch allows simple and efficient interfacing to some bus-based peripheral devices (like a card reader chip, etc.) without having to bit bang the bus interface.

>>STM32 as well?
Well you have answered your own question with your assumption;-)

See also the following:
http://www.utasker.com/forum/index.php?topic=139.0

One thing that I must admit is that porting to, and supporting, multiple devices is rather time consuming so I am presently concentrating on getting the best support possible for existing chips, including a USB stack, before attempting more devices. Of course this doesn't stop anyone else having a go themselves!!

Regards

Mark