Introduction to the Cortex-M3

An Introduction to the ARM Cortex-M3 Processor
 
Shyam Sadasivan                                             October 2006
 
1. Introduction
 
System-on-chip solutions based on ARM embedded processors address many different market
segments including enterprise applications, automotive systems, home networking and wireless
technologies. The ARM Cortex™ family of processors provides a standard architecture to address
the broad performance spectrum required by these diverse technologies. The ARM Cortex family
includes processors based on the three distinct profiles of the ARMv7 architecture; the A profile for
sophisticated, high-end applications running open and complex operating systems; the R profile for
real-time systems; and the M profile optimized for cost-sensitive and microcontroller applications.
The Cortex-M3 processor is the first ARM processor based on the ARMv7-M architecture and has
been specifically designed to achieve high system performance in power- and cost-sensitive
embedded applications, such as microcontrollers, automotive body systems, industrial control
systems and wireless networking, while significantly simplifying programmability to make the ARM
architecture an option for even the simplest applications.