ARM microcontrollers have become a popular and excellent choice for many embedded control applications. Yet, there are increasingly demanding applications that need even more performance and greater data throughput than is possible from microcontrollers based on the ARM7TDMI core. To meet these demands, STMicroelectronics has developed the ARM966E-based STR910F series of high-performance general purpose Flash microcontrollers. With backward compatibility to the ARM7TDMI instruction set, the STR910F is also an easy upgrade path for ARM7TDMI users.

The STR910F has up to 544 KB of embedded Flash and 96 KB of embedded SRAM, and includes an Ethernet MAC, high-speed peripherals and effective low-power features. In addition, architectural innovations have been added to simultaneously improve application performance and enable rapid data flow. The STR910F series of Flash microcontrollers are designed for highly demanding applications, yet are priced for a broad range of embedded applications.

Compared to the ARM7TDMI, the ARM966E-S core has a more efficient 5-stage pipeline, utilizes a Harvard Architecture with separate buses for instructions and data, and adds new DSP instructions. The ARM966E-S core does this while maintaining full backward compatibility with the ARM7TDMI core and instruction set, and without burdening the microcontroller with an MMU or an expensive cache that can affect determinism.

Along with an Ethernet MAC, the STR910F also includes a cerified USB Full-Speed Device, an External Memory Interface, CAN, UARTs, I2C, SPI, up to 80 GPIO, a dedicated Motor Control Block; a range of timers including general-purpose timers, a real time clock and watchdog timers, a high-speed ADC, and built-in supervisory functions.

To provide for dynamic power management the STR910F features a range of low-power modes. These include a sleep mode that drawing only 55µA, making the STR910F family well-suited for low-power and portable applications. A separate power domain allows battery back up of the entire SRAM. And the full-featured real-time clock draws less than 1µA on the battery supply pin across the entire -40˚ C to +85˚ C temperature range.

STR910F ARM9-based microcontrollers can open up the possibilities for your next ARM-based product— increase performance and features while increasing your product’s value.