ARM7 as a General Purpose Microcontroller: What should you Look for when choosing an ARM based MCU?

摘要

ONE OF THE EASIEST trends to spot in the world of micro-controllers is the adoption of the ARM7-TDMI core as the CPU for general purpose micro-controllers. Originally ARM processors were IP, largely for consumer products such as mobile phones The high development costs of such projects made the use of ARM7-TDMI the preserve of large blue chip companies However there has been a rush of semiconductor companies releasing new micro-controllers based on the core, Many of these micro-controllers are true single-chip, 32-bit devices at astonishingly low prices - often beating the price of existing 8-bit micro-controllers, This article will look at how the ARM7-TDMI is used in a general purpose micro-controller and review key points to look for when evaluating such devices.