NXP shows off ARM's Cortex-M0

NXP SEMICONDUCTORS, the firm founded by consumer electronics giant, Philips, says it will build microcontrollers based on ARM's Cortex-M0 core and bring them to market by early 2010.

Netherlands-based NXP will apparently be using the Embedded Systems Conference in San Francisco to springboard the launch and demo its Cortex-M0 processor-based LPC1100 series, used in "battery applications, e-metering, consumer peripherals, remote sensors, and virtually all 16-bit applications."

ARM's new addition (finger?), previously codenamed 'Swift', has just 12,000 gates and, like the rest of the firm's offerings, was designed specifically for its low power consumption.

The Cortex-M0 core clocks in with slightly less performance than ARM's already established Cortex-M3, but is also a fair bit less complex, and boasts "dramatic code density improvement", so it's purportedly better suited to the low power implementation of the ARM 32-bit processor architecture.

In addition to the core, NXP says there will also be an ADC, timers, serial interfaces and memory bunged in and that operation should be at 1-25MHz from an external crystal, or 12MHz from an internal RC oscillator.

"The PLL allows CPU operation up to the maximum CPU rate without the need for a high-frequency crystal," said an NXP press release, adding "It may be run from the main oscillator, the internal RC oscillator, or the watchdog oscillator."

NXP also notes its offering will sport an integrated power management unit to run consumption in modes of "sleep", "deep-sleep" and "deep powerdown".

According to ARM spokesman, Alan Tringham, the Cortex-M0 is designed to compete with existing 16-bit parts - or in other words, be a 32-bit processor in the footprint of a 16-bit one. He added that ARM had been working closely with NXP on both the development and roll out of the Cortex-M0 for many months already.

"They are currently licensees of the ARM7, ARM 9 and Cortex-M3 processors, so the Cortex-M0 extends their ARM processor-based portfolio even further and enables them to offer their MCU customers a complete range of ARM processor-based parts", Tringham told the INQ, adding the range would continue to grow with future processors planned for the near future.

Another lead ARM Partner for the Cortex-M0 will be Triad Semiconductor, but it isn't anticipated to have parts available until later this year. µ