By Todd Hixon
The ARM Cortex-M3 core has enhancements to its architecture that result in increased code execution speed, lower power consumption, and easier software development (Table 1). The result is a true real-time core that overcomes real-time processing limitations of the ARM7TMI core. Over time, most ARM7-based designs will be migrated to the Cortex-M3.
Although ARM has done a lot to make it easy to port legacy code from the ARM7 to the Cortex-M3 core, more remains to be done. The purpose of this two-part article is to take you step-by-step through the porting process, so you will have no excuses when your boss asks to you to port some legacy code and have it ready by last Wednesday.
