PM0214 datasheet(13/245 Pages) STMICROELECTRONICS

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PM0214

About this document

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1.3

About the STM32 Cortex-M4 processor and core peripherals

The Cortex-M4 processor is a high performance 32-bit processor designed for the

microcontroller market. It offers significant benefits to developers, including:

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outstanding processing performance combined with fast interrupt handling

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enhanced system debug with extensive breakpoint and trace capabilities

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efficient processor core, system and memories

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ultra-low power consumption with integrated sleep modes

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platform security robustness, with integrated memory protection unit (MPU).

The Cortex-M4 processor is built on a high-performance processor core, with a 3-stage

pipeline Harvard architecture, making it ideal for demanding embedded applications. The

processor delivers exceptional power efficiency through an efficient instruction set and

extensively optimized design, providing high-end processing hardware including IEEE754-

compliant single-precision floating-point computation, a range of single-cycle and SIMD

multiplication and multiply-with-accumulate capabilities, saturating arithmetic and dedicated

hardware division.

Figure 1. STM32 Cortex-M4 implementation

To facilitate the design of cost-sensitive devices, the Cortex-M4 processor implements

tightly-coupled system components that reduce processor area while significantly improving

interrupt handling and system debug capabilities. The Cortex-M4 processor implements a

version of the Thumb® instruction set based on Thumb-2 technology, ensuring high code

density and reduced program memory requirements. The Cortex-M4 instruction set

provides the exceptional performance expected of a modern 32-bit architecture, with the

high code density of 8-bit and 16-bit microcontrollers.

The Cortex-M4 processor closely integrates a configurable nested interrupt controller

(NVIC), to deliver industry-leading interrupt performance. The NVIC includes a non-

maskable interrupt (NMI), and provides up to 256 interrupt priority levels. The tight

PM0214 Datasheet(PDF) 13 Page - STMicroelectronics