Texas Instruments claims that it has created the industry's first 65nm Cortex-M microcontrollers, with the first 40 devices available in the Stellaris Cortex-M4F microcontrollers. The low power, floating point devices are code-compatible with the earlier M3 microcontrollers and have a variety of peripherals and a low standby current, making them suitable for consumer and industrial applications. Initially, 40 devices are immediately available, with the company expecting to roll out another 180 over the next year. Analogue, memory and connectivity can be configured; for example, a microcontroller with GPS for mapping distances, speed and elevation and with wifi for updates and synching to the cloud can be combined in a wristband with a USB for PC connection, for fitness monitoring. To speed time to market, the company also offers free license and royalty-free StellarisWare software which includes example projects, application and peripheral libraries and open source stacks. To conserve flash memory, the software is pre-loaded in ROM. Supported by five popular IDEs, namely Code Composer Studio, Code Red, CodeSourcery, IAR Systems and Keil, the microcontroller kits jumpstart design in 10 minutes or less, claims the company.
