Foreword

Microcontroller programmers are, by their nature, truly resourceful beings. They take a fixed design and create fantastic new products by implementing the microcontroller in a very unique way. Constantly, they demand highly efficient computing from the most frugal of system designs. The primary ingredient used to perform this alchemy is the tool chain environment, and it is for this reason that engineers from ARM’s own tool chain division joined forces with CPU designers to form a team that would rationalize, simplify, and improve upon the ARM7TDMI processor design.

The result of this combination, the ARM Cortex-M3, represents an exciting development to the original ARM architecture. The device blends the best features from the 32-bit ARM architecture with the highly successful Thumb-2 instruction set design whilst adding several new capabilities. Despite these changes, the Cortex-M3 retains a simplified programmer’s model that will be easily recognizable to all existing ARM aficionados.

—Wayne Lyons
Director of Embedded Solutions, ARM