ARM Cortex-M1 Processor
Soft ARM ® Processor Designed for FPGAs
Overview

For PolarFire and RTG4 Product Families the Cortex-M1 soft CPU is licensed under the terms of ARM Cortex-M1 End User License Agreement (EULA).
To obtain the core please contact Tech Support https://microchipsupport.force.com/s/
CoreCortexM1 processor runs a subset of the Thumb-2 instruction set (ARMv6-M) that includes all base 16-bit Thumb instructions and a few Thumb-2 32-bit instructions (BL, MRS, MSR, ISB, DSB, and DMB). This enables writing very tight and efficient processor code, which is ideal for the limited memory typically found in deeply-embedded applications.
Cortex-M1 Features
- ARMv6-M instruction set architecture
- Executes all Thumb code—can run ARM7 and ARM9 Thumb subroutines
- 3-stage, 32-bit pipeline
- 128KB I TCM & 128KB D TCM address each
- AHB-Lite interface
- 32 interrupts
- Fast multiplier
- Embedded real-time debug and JTAG interface
- Supported by a full range of development tools
Supported Devices


Ecosystem
Microsemi Design Software
- Libero SoC Design Suite - Microsemi comprehensive, easy to use FPGA design suite
- SoftConsole IDE - Microsemi free software development environment that enables the rapid production of C and C++ executables
- Firmware Catalog - Includes all of the available drivers and is installed with Libero or available standalone
Design Hardware
PolarFire FPGA family kits
Radiation-Tolerant FPGA Development Kit for RTG4 FPGAs
FlashPro Programmer- Supports device in system programming and hardware and firmware debugging
Compile and Debug
SoftConsole IDE - Microsemi free software development environment that enables the rapid production of C and C++ executables
- Download SoftConsole installation for Windows or Linux
IAR Embedded Workbench is an integrated development environment for building and debugging embedded ARM applications using assembler, C and C++. It includes a project manager, editor, build and debugger tools with support for RTOS-aware debugging on hardware or in a simulator.
- IAR Embedded Workbench Resources for ARM
- Download Evaluation or Kickstart version of IAR Embedded Workbench for- ARM
Keil MDK comes in four editions: MDK-LITE, MDK-Essential, MDK-Plus and MDK-Professional. All four editions feature µVision®, the ARM Compiler, MicroLib, and RTX, but the MDK-LITE edition is limited to 32K so that small applications are more affordable.
- Keil Microcontroller Development Kit for ARM Product Manuals
- Download Evaluation version of Keil MDK-ARM
Intellectual Property
An important set of functional blocks required to use Cortex-M1 in applications are the subsystem peripherals. The following IP cores, just to name a few, are available for free in the Libero IDE Catalog and SmartDesign, and can be used with ARM Cortex-M1.
- CoreGPIO
- CorePCIF
- CoreI2C
- Core10/100
- Core429
- CoreAHB2APB
- CoreAI
- CoreCFI
- CoreFMEE
- CoreFROM
- CoreInterrupt
- CoreMemCtrl
- CorePWM
- CoreTimer
- CoreUARTapb
- CoreWatchdog
For a complete list of IP cores for use with Cortex-M1 that are available in the Libero IDE Catalog and SmartDesign, visit the IP Cores web page. Microsemi also offers software drivers for these cores that ease the use of the cores for application developers, allowing them to focus on a core's function and not its internal operation. The Firmware Catalog includes all of the available drivers and is installed with Libero IDE or available as standalone.