STMicroelectronics today announced that the roadmap for its STM32 family of 32-bit MCUs based on ARM Cortex-M processor cores will include new devices centered on the Cortex-M4 and the Cortex-M0 cores.
The Cortex-M4 from ARM is an upwardly compatible version of the Cortex-M3, offering DSP instructions and a Floating Point Unit (FPU). The core will be used in new high-performance variants of STM32 products, to be sampled in 2011.
For what the company calls “highly cost-sensitive applications” the STM32 portfolio will offer a new series, also sampling in 2011, currently being developed around the Cortex-M0.
According to ST all future STM32 Cortex-M4 and -M0 based MCUs will remain fully pin- and software compatible with each other and the STM32 Cortex-M3 devices. In addition, they will benefit from the same tool and software ecosystem.