Like the Cortex-M3 & M4, it is a 32-bit ARMv7-M core processor. I is said to use a six-stage superscalar pipeline.
The ARM literature says that it will have highly flexible system and memory interfaces. Looking forward to seeing more details on that... (though of course it will lack a MMU).
It launches manufactured on a 40nm process and runs up to 400Mhz. However it will move to a 28nm process in the near future, where performance is expected to double (so one can assume a near doubling of clock speed as well).
Atmel is already said to have a license. Will be interesting to see if the Arduino team selects this processor for a new Arduino variant. Arduino is using the Cortex-M0+ (armv6-m) for the new Arduino ZERO and has used the Cortex-M3 (armv7-m) for the Arduino DUE. But they've yet to employ the Cortex-M4 (armv7-m). Their latest board, the Arduino TRE contains a Texas Instruments Sitara processor which uses Cortex-A8 (armv7-a) series core. So who knows what direction they are moving in?
Texas Instruments licenses a number of the Cortex-M processors, but I haven't heard of a license for this new processor. I just picked up a nice development board that uses the Cortex-M4 from TI.
ARM has updated the website and specifications are now available:
Bummer there is no EEprom on the STMicro variant.
Perhaps I'm not very bright, but other than SDMicro storage, I haven't found a good way to store homing constants (think positioning in motion control apps) or calibration data (think analytical sensors) when EEprom isn't present.
I imagine everyone else is just adding an EEprom too?
TI' Cortex-M4 based MCU came with 6K eeprom. I'm hoping that when they license the Cortex-M7 for their next version they will continue the practice.
An external serial EEPROM is pretty easy to add, especially if you're already using I2C or SPI.
A fair number of of the no-EEPROM chips have added features to the flash to make it more usable for the sorts of application that you describe. Separate protection bits and/or smaller page sizes for special regions of flash, for example. And of course when there is more RAM in the chip (generally true of 32bit chips), it's easier to "shadow" a harder-to-access memory...
I don't believe EEPROM is compatible with 40nm technology, gate oxide isn't
thick enough? Often at least one support chip would have EEPROM anyway, RTC,
power management, etc etc.
MarkT,
That's interesting info. Both Atmel and TI produce MCUs utilizing the Cortex-m4 core.
The Atmel SAM4* MCUs, have no EEProm provisions. The Cortex-M4 is produced on the 65nm process node.
To contrast, the TI TM4C1259 has 6k of EEProm.
It will be interesting to see how TI addresses EEProm when they employ the Cortex-M7 (assuming they will).