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55 comments

In a $6.5 billion deal, Texas Instruments acquires National Semiconductor, extending its Analog portfolio by 42,000 devices.

"More Information on the TI website.":http://www.ti.com/ww/en/acquire/index.shtml

22 comments

<a href="https://embdev.net/attachment/70751/Cortex-M4.gif"><img src="https://embdev.net/attachment/preview/70751.jpg" style="float: right;" /></a>

ARM today announced a new member of the Cortex-M processor core family, the Cortex-M4. It is advertised as a "DSC (digital signal controller)", a hybrid between microcontroller and DSP (digital signal processor). In features the M-series' Thumb-2 instruction set, and DSP extensions like single-cycle MAC (multiply-accumulate), a hardware divider, and an optional single precision FPU (floating point unit). The target clock speed is 150 MHz.

From the available information it seems that the Cortex-M4 will be competing with "TI's C2000 family":http://focus.ti.com/mcu/docs/mcuprodoverview.tsp?sectionId=95&tabId=1531&familyId=916, which includes devices at similar clock speeds and optional FPUs, and Microchip's slightly lower-end "dsPIC":http://www.microchip.com/stellent/idcplg?IdcService=SS_GET_PAGE&nodeId=75. Applications cited by ARM range from motor control to audio processing.

According to the press release, five semiconductor companies, including NXP, STMicroelectronics and Texas Instruments have already licensed the Cortex-M4.

More information:

• "Press release":http://www.arm.com/about/newsroom/arm-launches-class-leading-cortex-m4-processor-for-high-performance-digital-signal-control.php
• "Cortex-M4 product page":http://www.arm.com/products/processors/cortex-m/cortex-m4-processor.php

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"Atmel":http://www.atmel.com has "announced":http://www.atmel.com/dyn/corporate/view_detail.asp?FileName=AT91SAM3U_6_1.html a new controller family called "AT91SAM3U":http://www.atmel.com/products/at91/sam3landing.asp?family_id=605 based on the ARM Cortex-M3. If you have been following the development of the ARM market this was only a matter of time, since the big competitors NXP and TI (with its "recent aquisition":http://embdev.net/topic/138115#new of Luminary) are already shipping Cortex-M3 based controllers. Unlike them however, Atmel seems to be targeting only the higher end of Cortex-M3 applications, which is also not too surprising considering their strong position in the 8 bit market with the "AVR":http://www.atmel.com/products/AVR (and AVR XMEGA) family.

44 comments

Texas Instruments just "announced":http://www.luminarymicro.com/press/ti_acquires_luminary_micro.html that they acquired Luminary Micro, vendor of the popular ARM Cortex M3-based Stellaris microcontroller series. A step that seems to make sense, since TI had fallen a bit behind in the general purpose, low end ARM controller market.

55 comments

An "article section":http://embdev.net/articles/ has been added on EmbDev.net. The first articles are "a general overview of ARM-based microcontrollers":http://embdev.net/articles/ARM (cores, development tools) and my "ARM MP3/AAC Player":http://embdev.net/articles/ARM_MP3/AAC_Player project (previously published on "Mikrocontroller.net":http://www.mikrocontroller.net).

The articles are organized as a Wiki, that means anyone can edit and create articles. If you want to write an article about a project you would like to present or a topic that interests you, see "How to create a new article":http://embdev.net/articles/How_to_create_a_new_article.

All articles are licensed under a "Creative Commons License":http://embdev.net/articles/EmbDev.net:Copyrights.

22 comments

The new "Stellaris 9000 series":http://www.luminarymicro.com/products/9000_series.html by "Luminary":http://www.luminarymicro.com is based on the ARM Cortex-M3 and offers up to 96 kB RAM and 100 MHz clock speed. New features include I2S (for audio CODECs) and an external peripheral interface that supports SDRAM and a host mode.

66 comments

<a href="/images/news/cortex-m0.png"><img src="/images/news/cortex-m0-small.png" align="right" /></a> ARM is intensifying its attack on the 8-bit controller market with a new ultra-low power processor core, the Cortex-M0. At claimed 0.85 µW/MHz the power efficiency is comparable to controllers of the AVR or MSP430 families. The Cortex-M0 implements the Thumb-1 and a subset of the Thumb-2 instruction set, so the same level of support by open source tools can be expected as for the other ARM cores.

NXP, best known for its ARM7-based controller family LPC2000, has announced to become the first licensee for the Cortex-M0, though no specific products have been announced yet.

• "ARM Cortex-M0":http://www.arm.com/products/CPUs/ARM-Cortex-M0.html
• "NXP licenses ARM Cortex™-M0 Processor":http://www.nxp.com/news/content/file_1533.html

11 comment