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ARM Comparison

Former Member

Hi,

 

We are looking to move away from our 8 bit micros to ARM processor. There seems to be so many vendors, I was wondering if anyone had come across a comparison of the various ARM (I am looking for Cortex family) from the various Vendors (TI, NXP, ST, Freescale, etc)?

 

Thanks

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  • Whilst I haven't come across any direct comparisons of ARM Cortex based processors
    there are a few things that I can point out that may be worthwhile considering before
    taking the plunge...

     

    If time is a major consideration, go with what your familiar with:,
    If for example you are used to using Freescale 8Bit devices
    then I would probably suggest sticking with Freescale as some people swear by the Codewarrior
    IDE and the tools offered in that package. The same applies for other vendors favoured IDE's.

    I would advise spending a little time with a few of the cheaper developement tools before
    taking the plunge.

     

    I can happily recommend the Olimex range of developement boards such as the STM32-P103STM32-P103
    as these tend to be very cleanly layed out and all non power/ clock pins are generally available.
    They are however not supplied with any software or documentation in the box, but a quick browse of the
    vendors website will quickly resolve that in most cases. The downside is that there is no JTAG interface included.
    So you would need to purchase this as a seperate item.

    The LM3S9B90 Stellaris Eval kit, is a nice peice of hadware that comes with a FTDI based JTAG tool that can be used to
    program and debug almost any Cortex device using the OpenOCD software debugger. Again a very nicely layed out board and
    as this device has onboard ethernet it is supplied with the magnetics, unfortunatley I haven't had that much time to play
    with this kit but it is looking very promising.

    Most Cortex based applications can be developed using a variety of IDE's,
    simply because manufacturers are releasing library packages for the IC's peripherals.
    Many of the free unrestricted compilers are based upon the GNU Tools( gcc, make, etc.)
    so with a little investment of time it is possible to configure a system to compile for multiple
    targets without too much time spent learning an IDE.

     

    It is the peripherals and thier libraries in my mind that are the differentiator.
    To help you further a little more information on your intended application or
    just the types of peripherals you need, power requirements etc.

     

    Just a quick addition, here is a nice comparison by Keil for a number of Cortex M3 devices....

    http://www.keil.com/boards/cortexm.asp

  • in reply to Kelv

    Hi Kelv,

     

    I have been looking at some of the development boards and the link you provided is very useful.

    Thanks,

    DAB

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