ARM today announced availability of the ARM Cortex M1 processor to extend range of the ARM Cortex processor family, and enable OEMs achieve savings through rationalization of software and tool investments.
"The Cortex-M1 processor extends the reach of the ARM architecture in the FPGA domain, and advances our goal of providing processor solutions for the entire digital world," said Graham Budd, EVP and general manager, Processor Division, ARM.
The FPGA-optimized Cortex-M1 processor will offer users of Actel's flash-based M1-enabled Actel Fusion Programmable System Chips and ProASIC3 FPGAs as a compact and efficient processor. The Cortex-M1 processor will be supported by forthcoming releases of the ARM RealView Development Suite and RealView Microcontroller Development Kit.
The RealView Development Suite will include a complete instruction set system model (ISSM) to allow developers create and test applications. Developers can easily customize the RealView Development Suite's debugger to visualize and interact with peripherals.
The ARM Cortex-M1 processor is a streamlined three-stage 32-bit RISC processor to implement a subset of the popular, high density Thumb-2 instruction set. This enables both the processor and software footprint to meet the area budget, while retaining compatibility with Thumb code for any ARM processor from the ARM7TDMI processor upwards.
The Cortex-M1 processor is capable of more than 170 MHz, while occupying less than 15 percent area of popular low-cost FPGA devices. Despite being the smallest processor in the Cortex family, the Cortex-M1 processor can deliver 0.8 DMIPS/MHz.
Typical applications for the Cortex-M1 processor on FPGAs including embedded control, communications, networking and aerospace. Free of license and royalty fees, Actel's implementation of the Cortex-M1 processor will be available for early access in April. The M1-enabled ProASIC3 and Actel Fusion PSC devices will sample in Q3 2007.
The ARM Cortex-M1 processor RTL and associated EDA views optimized for a range of FPGA vendor devices including Actel, Altera, Lattice and Xilinx will be available for license by OEMs in 2Q'07.
