Cortex-M Learning Platform

Learning platform for Cortex-M microcontroller users

This is a collection of resources that help you to create application software for Arm® Cortex®-M microcontrollers. It covers various topics from getting started to debugging your application and contains links to videos, example projects, application notes, and documentation.

Fundamentals: Cortex-M Processor Collaterals

How to Choose Your Arm Cortex-M Processor

Describes the various Arm Cortex-M processors to help you picking the right one for your application. It briefly explains the processor architecture and the core peripherals.

Topic		Description
Device Database		Microcontrollers and devices supported by CMSIS-Pack. For each device the processor core and other device parameters are listed and the Software Pack can be downloaded.
Cortex-M Devices Generic User Guides
Cortex-M0		Programmers view and instruction set reference for the Cortex-M0 processor. It describes also the core peripherals (NVIC, SCB, SysTick).
Cortex-M0+		Programmers view and instruction set reference for the Cortex-M0+ processor. It describes also the core peripherals (NVIC, SCB, SysTick).
Cortex-M3		Programmers view and instruction set reference for the Cortex-M3 processor. It describes also the core peripherals (NVIC, SCB, SysTick).
Cortex-M4		Programmers view and instruction set reference for the Cortex-M4 processor. It describes also the core peripherals (NVIC, SCB, SysTick).
Cortex-M7		Programmers view and instruction set reference for the Cortex-M7 processor. It describes also the core peripherals (NVIC, SCB, SysTick).
Cortex-M23		Programmers view and instruction set reference for the Cortex-M23 processor. It describes also the core peripherals (NVIC, SCB, SysTick).
Cortex-M33		Programmers view and instruction set reference for the Cortex-M33 processor. It describes also the core peripherals (NVIC, SCB, SysTick).
Architectural Details
Armv7-M Primer		This Doulos webinar introduces the various Cortex-M products (Armv6-M and Armv7-M) and explains the programmer's model, instruction set, exception handling and the pre-defined memory model.
CoreSight Basics (Part 1)		This blog post provides readers with a starting point to understand the concepts which will help you to work with CoreSight.
CoreSight Basics (Part 2)		This blog post talks about processor trace architectures, debug access, and DAP topologies.
CoreSight Basics (Part 3)		This blog post shows typical CoreSight systems and explains the details on trace capture, streaming trace, and capture capacity.
Technical White Papers
Migrating Cortex-M4 Applications to Cortex-M7		Discusses some of the areas software developers should know about when migrating applications from the Cortex-M3 and Cortex-M4 to the Cortex-M7 processor.
Cortex-M4 Lazy Stacking and Context Switching		The Cortex-M4 adds a feature called lazy stacking which avoids an increase of interrupt latency by skipping the stacking of floating-point registers.
Migrating from PIC Microcontrollers to Cortex-M3		Explains the differences between PIC and Cortex-M3 processors and gives advice on how to migrate applications from PIC to the Cortex-M3 processor.
Migrating from 8051 to Cortex Microcontrollers		Compares 8051 and Cortex-M architectures and shows how to migrate from 8051 to Cortex-M.
Software based Finite State Machine (FSM) with general purpose processors		Shows how to replace legacy CPLD FSMs with Cortex-M based software FSMs. This white paper was presented at the embedded world conference 2013.
Efficient Interrupts on Cortex-M Microcontrollers		Explores how the architectural features of Cortex-M microcontrollers can be used to maximize power efficiency while ensuring that real-time goals are met. This white paper was presented at the embedded world conference 2015.

CMSIS: Cortex Microcontroller Software Interface Standard

Updated! Start Programming: Create an Application from Scratch

Debugging: How to use Cortex-M Debug and Trace Features

Multi-core Debug with CMSIS-DAP and ULINKplus

Learn how to debug multi-core targets with CMSIS-DAP and ULINKplus.

Topic		Description
Identifying timing and power consumption bottlenecks		This webinar shows how Events Recorder provides detailed statistics about execution timing and energy consumption to optimize your application.
Benefits of ST-Link when using with Arm Keil MDK		The guest blog on ST's web site explains how ST-Link provides effective application debugging for STM32 devices with Keil MDK.
Mastering modern RTOS debugging techniques		Get familiar with important concepts such as properly sizing thread stacks, using event viewers and discovering issues.
Optimize your Embedded Application		Shows how to use features like performance analysis, stack watermarking and event viewer to minimize hardware costs, optimize resource usage, and improve system performance.
Cortex-M Trace Primer		Explains the trace functionality of Cortex-M processor and how it can be used for instruction trace, as well as performance and code coverage analysis.
CoreSight		Tutorial detailing the key aspects of debug and trace features available in Cortex-M processors.
Connectors		Detailed summary of the available debug and trace connectors.
ULINK Debug Adapters		Overview of the ULINK family of debug and trace adapters.
J-Link/J-Trace User's Guide		Describes Segger's J-Link and J-Trace debug adapters and how they can be configured in µVision for debugging, tracing, and Flash programming.
CMSIS-DAP Debugger User's Guide		Describes the configuration options of the CMSIS-DAP Debugger driver implemented in µVision.
Application Notes
Using Cortex-M3 and Cortex-M4 Fault Exceptions		Shows how to use the Cortex-M exception model to trap illegal memory accesses and several incorrect program conditions.
Determining the stack usage of applications		This application note explains methods that help finding the optimal setting while looking specifically on the stack load caused by interrupt service routines (ISRs) in RTOS applications running on an Arm Cortex-M based processor.
Detecting sporadic errors with ETM trace		This application note explains how ULINKpro is used to identify sporadic errors that where caused by misconfigured hardware.
Using Event Recorder for debugging a network performance issue		This application note shows how Event Recorder and Keil MDK can be used for analyzing the program execution and locating the root cause for poor performance in a real network example.
Analyze Memory Access Issues		This application note shows how to debug a wireless communication issue using built-in functionality in Arm Keil MDK.