ARM Holdings on Tuesday unveiled the ARM Cortex-M7, a new chip design suited for factory automation, cars and home security systems, underscoring the company's focus on the Internet-connected industrial and household devices. The new 32-bit Cortex-M processor that double the compute and digital signal processing (DSP) capability of today's most powerful ARM-based MCUs. It is targeted at high-end embedded applications used in next generation vehicles, connected devices, and smart homes and factories. Early licensees of the Cortex-M7 processor include Atmel, Freescale and ST Microelectronics.

The Cortex-M7 achieves an impressive 5 CoreMark/MHz . This performance allows the Cortex-M7 to deliver a combination of high performance and digital signal control functionality to MCU silicon manufacturers. Expected uses of Cortex-M7 include smart control systems employed in a range of applications such as motor control, industrial automation, advanced audio, image processing, a variety of connected vehicle applications and other Internet of Things (IoT) uses.

Other benefits delivered by the Cortex-M7 processor incude faster processing of audio and image data and voice recognition. The core also provides the same C-friendly programmer's model and is binary compatible with existing Cortex-M processors. Ecosystem and software compatibility enables simple migration from any existing Cortex-M core to the new Cortex-M7.

ARM Cortex-M7 features:

• Six stage, superscalar pipeline delivering 2000 Coremarks at 400MHz in a 40LP process
• AXI interconnect (supports 64-bit transfer) and fully integrated optional caches for instruction and data allowing efficient access to large external memories and powerful peripherals
• Tightly coupled memory interfaces for real-time response
• Extensive implementation configurability to enable a wide range of cost and performance points to be targeted
• Optional full instruction and data trace via the Embedded Trace Macrocell enabling greater system visibility
• An optional safety package and built-in fault detection features contribute toward ASIL D and SIL 3 compliance, meaning Cortex-M7 can be used for automotive, industrial, transport and medical applications
• Wide third-party tools, RTOS, middleware support of any architecture, provided by the ARM Connected Community of complementary partner companies.