Arm Cortex-M DAP bus and interconnect architecture Explained

The Arm Cortex-M series of processors feature a Debug Access Port (DAP) that provides debug capability and access to the processor’s internal state while it is running. The DAP uses a standard JTAG interface and allows debugging tools like GDB to halt, single-step, and examine registers and memory on the target device. This article will

Using the CortexA76 Cryptographic Extension

The CortexA76 processor from ARM includes a dedicated cryptographic extension for accelerating cryptographic operations. This extension provides significant performance improvements for cryptography compared to executing cryptography on the main CPU cores. This article provides a comprehensive guide on how to use the cryptographic extension in the CortexA76. Introduction to the CortexA76 Cryptographic Extension The cryptographic

Security features of The Arm Cortex-A76 (Explained)

The Arm Cortex-A76 is a high-performance CPU core designed for mobile, embedded and infrastructure applications. It offers several security features to help protect against attacks and ensure safe and reliable operation. TrustZone Security Extensions The Cortex-A76 implements Arm TrustZone technology to provide a hardware-level security foundation. TrustZone divides the CPU into two worlds – a

Debugging capabilities of Cortex-A76 with CoreSight

The Cortex-A76 processor from ARM provides powerful debugging capabilities through the use of CoreSight technology. CoreSight enables real-time access to the CPU, memory system and peripherals while debugging. This allows developers to easily trace software execution, analyze memory corruption, inspect register contents and more when debugging applications running on Cortex-A76. Introduction to CoreSight CoreSight is

Cortex-A76 architecture and specifications (Explained)

The Cortex-A76 is Arm’s latest high-performance mobile CPU core designed for greater performance and power efficiency. In this in-depth article, we will explore the key architectural features and specifications of the Cortex-A76 to understand what makes this CPU core so powerful and efficient. Overview The Cortex-A76 is based on Arm’s new “Austin” microarchitecture, representing a

Configuring timers and GPIO for interrupt latency testing

The key to measuring interrupt latency is utilizing the ARM Cortex chip’s timers and GPIO pins. By configuring a timer to trigger a GPIO interrupt at precise intervals, we can measure the time elapsed between the timer interrupt request and the execution of the GPIO interrupt handler. This provides an accurate measurement of the interrupt

Reducing Context Switch Overhead with FPU Registers on Cortex-M4

The Cortex-M4 processor includes a floating point unit (FPU) to support single precision floating point operations. However, saving and restoring the FPU registers during a context switch can add significant overhead. This article will discuss techniques to reduce this context switch overhead by avoiding unnecessary saving/restoring of the FPU registers. FPU Registers in Cortex-M4 The

Soft Float vs Hardware Floating Point Tradeoffs on Microcontrollers

When designing a microcontroller system that requires floating point math, engineers must choose between implementing floating point operations in software (soft float) or hardware (hardware floating point unit). This article examines the tradeoffs between these two approaches to help guide the decision. Soft Float With soft float, floating point operations are implemented in software routines

Options for Floating Point Math on Cortex M Without FPUs

For Cortex M chips without a dedicated floating point unit (FPU), performing floating point math operations efficiently can be challenging. However, with the right software libraries and techniques, it is possible to do floating point math on Cortex M CPUs lacking an FPU. This article explores the options and tradeoffs for implementing floating point math