Control and Performance for Mixed-Signal Devices
The Cortex-M processor series is designed to enable developers to create cost-sensitive and power-constrained solutions for a broad range of devices. Cortex-M4 is a high-performance embedded processor developed to address digital signal control markets that demand an efficient, easy-to-use blend of control and signal processing capabilities.
Features and Benefits
Reduce power consumption and extend battery life with 10x acceleration of single precision floating-point operations with the built-in floating-point unit (FPU). Combined with the Arm CMSIS-NN machine learning libraries, Cortex-M4 brings advanced intelligence to battery-powered embedded and IoT devices.
Reduce chip system cost with combined control and signal processing in the same processor. Integrated Digital Signal Processing (DSP), SIMD, and MAC instructions simplify overall system design, software development and debug. Programmable in C and supported by a rich library of DSP functions, simplifies signal processing, reduces development effort, and brings DSP to the masses.
Reduce risk and achieve first-time success by using one of the most widely deployed Cortex-M processors. With its broad ecosystem of software, tools, codecs, and other DSP code, it is easy to build on existing software to create advanced embedded products with less effort and a faster time to market.
Specifications
The Cortex-M4 processor is developed to address digital signal control markets that demand an efficient, easy-to-use blend of control and signal processing capabilities. The combination of high-efficiency signal processing functionality with the low-power, low cost and ease-of-use benefits of the Cortex-M family of processors satisfies many markets. These industries include motor control, automotive, power management, embedded audio and industrial automation markets.
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Key Documentation
Cortex-M4 Technical Reference Manual |
Cortex-M4 Processor Datasheet |
Compare the specifications of Cortex-M processors:
Download Comparison PDF |
Where Innovation and Ideas Come to Life
Industrial Control
Controllers are widely used in industrial applications. Cortex-M4 comes equipped with essential microcontroller features, including low latency interrupt handling, integrated sleep modes, and debug and trace capabilities, making it the ideal processor for industrial control.
IoT Sensors
From healthcare to mobile, automotive to artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things (IoT) is transforming the way industries build applications. IoT monitors and sensors rely on extremely low-cost processors that blend low power with high performance.
Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning
Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) are expanding and defining more applications than ever before, changing how we interact with devices and machines everywhere. Arm CPU processor IP is scalable and flexible enough to run any type of ML workload, today or in the future.
Audio
Many applications are adding voice interaction or sound effects. The Cortex-M4 DSP extensions make it ideal for encoding and decoding MP3, AAC, and WMA. In addition, the processor can implement filtering and equalization while controlling the user interface.
Access a comprehensive guide to embedded systems built around Arm Cortex-M processor cores, from a high-level hardware and software perspective to the fundamentals of microcontroller architectures and SoC-based designs.
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Find out how Cortex-M4 can improve signal processing and control in your applications.
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Explore More Options and Features
Arm Virtual Hardware
Arm Virtual Hardware delivers models of Arm-based processors, systems, and third party hardware for application developers and SoC designers to build and test software without hardware, accelerating IoT and ML development.
Software Test Libraries
Arm's Software Test Libraries provide diagnostic coverage to address functional safety requirements for ISO 26262 and IEC 61508 systems, with flexible execution scheduling minimizing the run-time impact on applications.
Corstone
Designing a secure system-on-chip is challenging and time-consuming. To help designers get to market quickly, Arm provides the IP blocks needed to build a system. Corstone is a solution for architecting the system, making it secure and able to handle the complex power control infrastructure, while balancing trade-offs between performance and power.
A Foundation of Silicon Success
Arm-based chips, device architectures, and technologies orchestrate the performance of everything that makes modern life possible — from smartphones to agricultural sensors and from medical instruments to servers.
Armv7-M Architecture
The Armv7-M architecture provides opportunities for simple pipeline designs offering system performance levels across a broad range of markets and applications. It offers low cycle count execution, minimal interrupt latency, and cacheless operation, and is designed for deeply embedded systems.
Safety Ready
Functional safety is a critical element in the design of any system that requires a high level of reliability. The Arm Safety Ready program is a collection of products across the Arm portfolio that have been through various and rigorous levels of functional safety systematic flows and development.
DSP for Cortex-M Processors
The DSP instructions and the optional floating-point unit improve the performance of numerical algorithms and enable signal processing operations directly on the Cortex-M4, Cortex-M7, Cortex-M33 and Cortex-M35P processors, while maintaining the ease of use of the Cortex-M programmer’s model.
Cortex-M4 Resources
Reference Book
Blogs
- The Flexible Approach to Adding Functional Safety to a CPU
- New CMSIS-NN Neural Network Kernels Boost Efficiency in Microcontrollers by ~5x
Tools
Industry News