Preface

This book is for both hardware and software engineers who are interested in the Cortex-M3 processor from ARM. The Cortex-M3 Technical Reference Manual (TRM) and the ARMv7-M Architecture Application Level Reference Manual already provide lots of information on this new processor, but they are very detailed and can be challenging for new starters to read.

This book is intended to be a lighter read for programmers, embedded product designers, System-on-a-Chip (SoC) engineers, electronics enthusiasts, academic researchers, and others with some experience of microcontrollers or microprocessors who are investigating the Cortex-M3 processor. The text includes an introduction to the new architecture, an instruction set summary, examples of some instructions, information on hardware features, and an overview of the processor’s advanced debug system. It also provides application examples, including basic steps in software development for the Cortex-M3 processor using ARM tools as well as the GNU tool chain. This book is also targeted to those engineers who are familiar with the ARM7TDMI processor and who are migrating to the Cortex-M3 processor, because it covers the differences between the processors, and the porting of application software from the ARM7TDMI to the Cortex-M3.