ARM's Cortex-M1 designed for implementation on FPGAs

ARM announced the availability of the ARM Cortex-M1 processor, the first ARM processor designed specifically for implementation on FPGAs. The ARM Cortex-M1 processor extends the range of the ARM Cortex processor family and enables OEMs to standardize around a common architecture across the performance spectrum. Actel has worked with ARM as lead Partner and is the first licensee of the Cortex-M1 processor for use by their FPGA customers.

ARM and Actel will both be demonstrating the Cortex-M1 processor at the Embedded Systems Conference in San Jose, Calif., April 2-5.

Graham Budd, EVP and general manager, processor division, ARM, said, "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. By leveraging ARM's vast installed user base in the ASIC/ASSP and microcontroller markets, along with support from our own RealView family of tools as well as product support from the ARM Connected Community, the Cortex-M1 processor will deliver significant savings to OEMs in terms of software development resources, tools, and training."

Rich Brossart, vice president, product marketing, Actel, said, "Following the success of our ARM7(TM) family-based solutions, Actel worked closely with ARM to optimize its Cortex-M1 processor for FPGA implementation from the ground up, making it an extremely valuable addition to our growing processor library. Free of the contract negotiations and fees typically associated with industry-standard processor cores, Actel will make the Cortex-M1 processor available to those companies who desire highly programmable solutions regardless of application or volume."

It is said that the Cortex-M1 processor will be fully supported by forthcoming releases of the ARM RealView Development Suite and RealView Microcontroller Development Kit. The RealView Development Suite will include a instruction set system model (ISSM) allowing developers to create and test applications for the Cortex-M1 processor out of the box. Developers can customize the RealView Development Suite's debugger to visualize and interact with peripherals added around a Cortex-M1 processor, and will also be able to connect and debug applications running on Cortex-M1 silicon using ARM's high-performance RealView ICE and ULINK(R)2 run control units.

ARM connected community partners, including CodeSourcery, Express Logic, IAR Systems, Mentor Graphics, Micrium and Synplicity will all support the Cortex-M1 processor. For improved flow integration, the Cortex-M1 processor deliverables will include an IP description conforming to the IP-XACT standard from the SPIRIT consortium.

The ARM Cortex-M1 processor is a streamlined three-stage 32-bit RISC processor that implements a subset of Thumb-2 instruction set. This enables both the processor and software footprint to meet the area budget of the smallest FPGA devices, 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, whilst 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 include embedded control, communications, networking and aerospace.

ARM