Arm Cortex-M Architecture and Software Development

This course is designed for anyone wishing to learn about the range of Cortex-M processors and the different resources that can help you with your Cortex-M project. The course begins with a bit of history about Arm processors and the Arm architecture, covering the differences between the M-profile and other architecture profiles like A-profile and R-profile. This course is suitable for beginners or people without an engineering or computer science background. The introductory material also sets the scene for the courses 2, 3 and 4.

The course includes fundamental architecture topics that are key to understanding how any Cortex-M processor functions internally. The course focuses specifically on the Armv8-M version of the Arm Architecture, which processors like the Cortex-M33 and Cortex-M55 are based on. However, even if you're working with older processors based on earlier versions of the architecture, like Armv6-M or Armv7-M, a lot of the information is mostly still very relevant and useful.

This course delves into software development topics such as working with Arm C/C++ compilers and Arm debug tools to optimize your software, whether it's for performance or code size. This course also looks more closely at the Common Microcontroller Software Interface Standard and how it helps ensure that software targeted at Cortex-M devices can be written using a consistent approach.