Cortex-M3-Based Microcontrollers

Microcontrollers from STMicroelectronics, the STM32 F-2 series, are based on ARM's Cortex-M3 core. They combine the company's 90nm process technology with its ART (Adaptive Real-Time memory) accelerator. The microcontrollers achieve a performance of 150Dhrystone MIPS when executing code from flash at 120MHz; this figure is the maximum performance possible from the Cortex-M3 at this frequency. The series also offers CoreMark-confirmed 188µA/MHz dynamic power consumption, when executing from flash, which is equivalent to drawing 22.5mA at 120MHz. In addition to on-chip memory densities that are among the highest of any Cortex-M3 based microcontrollers available, the micrcontrollers provide enhanced support for imaging, connectivity, security, audio and control applications, says the company. There are over 30 devices in the series adding to 150 pin- and software-compatible devices with common peripherals. For example, the STM32F205 provides 128kbyte to 1Mbyte flash, up to a USB OTG full-speed or high-speed interface, and a choice of LQFP64, LQFP100, LQFP144 or WLCSP64 (measuring less than 4x4mm) packages. Core peripherals are multiple timers, ADCs and DACs, serial interfaces, two CAN2.0B ports, an LCD interface and an external memory interface running up to 60MHz and supporting Compact flash, SRAM, PSRAM, NOR, and NAND memories. An RTC, CRC calculation unit and analogue true random number generator are also integrated. The STM32F207 adds another full-speed USB OTG interface, an Ethernet 10/100 MAC supporting both MII and RMII and with IEEE1588 PTP (precise time protocol) hardware support, and an 8- to 14bit parallel camera interface supporting up to 27Mbyte/s at 27MHz or 48Mbyte/s at 48MHz to connect a CMOS camera sensor. It is available in LQFP100, LQFP144 and UFBGA176 packages. The STM32F215 and STM32F217 provide a cryptographic security processor featuring hardware acceleration for AES 128/192/256, Triple DES, and HASH (MD5, SHA-1) protocols. Flash memory densities are 512kbyte and 1Mbyte.