The Insider’s Guide to Arm Cortex-M Development: Leverage embedded software development tools and examples to become an efficient Cortex-M developer

by Jason Andrews, Pareena Verma, Zachary Lasiuk

Length: 276 pages
Edition: 1
Language: English
Publisher: Packt Publishing
Publication Date: 2022-10-27
ISBN-10: 1803231114
ISBN-13: 9781803231112
Sales Rank: #241621 (See Top 100 Books)

Learn and implement the latest Arm Cortex-M microcontroller development concepts such as performance optimization, security, software reuse, machine learning, continuous integration, and cloud-based development from industry experts

Key Features

Learn how to select the best Cortex-M hardware, software, and tools for your project
Understand the use of key software components and how to optimize and develop modern applications
Get hands-on experience implementing quality software using example code provided in the book
Purchase of the print or Kindle book includes a free eBook in the PDF format

Book Description

Cortex-M has been around since 2004, so why a new book now? With new microcontrollers based on the Cortex-M55 and Cortex-M85 being introduced this year, Cortex-M continues to expand. New software concepts, such as standardized software reuse, have emerged alongside new topics including security and machine learning. Development methodologies have also significantly advanced, with more embedded development taking place in the cloud and increased levels of automation. Due to these advances, a single engineer can no longer understand an entire project and requires new skills to be successful.

This book provides a unique view of how to navigate and apply the latest concepts in microcontroller development. The book is split into two parts. First, you’ll be guided through how to select the ideal set of hardware, software, and tools for your specific project. Next, you’ll explore how to implement essential topics for modern embedded developers. Throughout the book, there are examples for you to learn by working with real Cortex-M devices with all software available on GitHub. You will gain experience with the small Cortex-M0+, the powerful Cortex-M55, and more Cortex-M processors.

By the end of this book, you’ll be able to practically apply modern Cortex-M software development concepts.

What you will learn

Familiarize yourself with heuristics to identify the right components for your Cortex-M project
Boot code to efficiently start up a Cortex-M device
Optimize algorithms with compilers, middleware, and other means
Get to grips with machine learning frameworks and implementation techniques
Understand security in the embedded space with solutions like TrustZone and TF-M
Explore cloud-based development methodologies to increase efficiency
Dive into continuous integration frameworks and best practices
Identify future trends that could impact Cortex-M software development

Who this book is for

This book is for practicing engineers and students working with embedded and IoT systems who want to quickly learn how to develop quality software for Arm Cortex-M processors without reading long technical manuals. If you’re looking for a book that explains C or assembly language programming for the purpose of creating a single application or mastering a type of programming such as digital signal processing algorithms, then this book is NOT for you. A basic understanding of embedded hardware and software, along with general C programming skills will assist with understanding the concepts covered in this book.

The Insider’s Guide to Arm Cortex-M Development
Contributors
About the authors
About the reviewer
Preface
    Who this book is for
    What this book covers
    To get the most out of this book
    Download the example code files
    Download the color images
    Conventions used
    Get in touch
    Share Your Thoughts
    Download a free PDF copy of this book
Part 1: Get Set Up
Chapter 1: Selecting the Right Hardware
    Processor selection through use cases
        Medical wearable
        Industrial flow sensor
        IoT sensor
        ML
    Processor selection based on performance and power
        Power
        DSP performance
        ML performance
        Security
        Safety
        Cost
    Microcontroller development boards
        Suppliers
    Selecting development boards
        Performance
        Power
        Peripherals
    Summary
    Further reading
Chapter 2: Selecting the Right Software
    Overview of bare-metal software
    Overview of RTOSs
    Exploring middleware and libraries
        CMSIS
        DSP libraries
        ML frameworks and libraries
    Understanding secure software
        PSA
        Trusted Firmware for Cortex-M
    Implementing safe software
    Example software stacks for common use cases
        Medical wearable
        Industrial flow sensor
        IoT sensor
        ML
    Introducing SDKs for Cortex-M
        Purpose of an SDK
        Language bindings
        Middleware
        Cloud connectors
        Security and encryption
        Development tools
        Build systems
        Lower-level considerations
    Looking at some available SDKs
        Raspberry Pi
        NXP
        ST
    Summary
    Further reading
Chapter 3: Selecting the Right Tools
    Examining development platforms
        Software-centric development platforms
        Hardware-centric development platforms
        Metrics for evaluating development platforms
    Exploring compilers
        Arm Compiler for Embedded
        Arm Compiler for Embedded FuSa
        GNU Arm Embedded Toolchain
    Navigating IDEs
        Keil MDK
        Arm Development Studio
        IAR Embedded Workbench for Arm
        Arduino IDE
        Visual Studio Code
    Understanding development environments
        Interactive versus automated development
        Local environments
        Virtual environments
        Cloud environments
    Summary
    Further reading
Part 2: Sharpen Your Skills
Chapter 4: Booting to Main
    The basics of hello world
    Arm Virtual Hardware using the Cortex-M55
        Running hello world
        Startup code
        Memory mapping
        I/O mechanisms
    NXP LPC55S69-EVK using the Cortex-M33
        Running Blinky
        Startup code
        Memory mapping
        I/O mechanisms
    The Raspberry Pi Pico using the Cortex-M0+
        Running hello world and Blinky
        Starting from scratch
        I/O mechanisms
        Startup code
        I/O mechanisms (using the UARTs this time)
        Debugging tips
    Summary
    Further reading
Chapter 5: Optimizing Performance
    Our algorithm – the dot product
    Measuring cycle count
        System Tick Timer
        Data Watchpoint and Trace
    Measuring dot product performance
        Using the Raspberry Pi Pico
        Using NXP LPC55S69-EVK
        Using Arm Virtual Hardware
    Optimization takeaways
        Processor performance
        Compilers
        Compiler flags
        Source code / algorithm implementation
    Summary
    Further reading
Chapter 6: Leveraging Machine Learning
    Understanding the ML application life cycle
    Investigating ML frameworks and libraries
        TensorFlow Lite for Microcontrollers
        CMSIS-NN
        TinyML
    Exploring ML use cases
        Anomaly detection – vibration
        Image classification – vision
        Micro speech – voice
    Summary
    Further reading
Chapter 7: Enforcing Security
    Breaking down PSA
        Analyze – threat modeling and the 10 security goals
        Architect – References, suggestions, and APIs
        Implement – Creating a secure system
        Certify – PSA certification levels
    Example 1 – Secure versus non-secure hello world
        Obtaining and building the application
        Switching security states
        Calling a secure function from a non-secure state
    Example 2 – TF-M
        Obtaining and building the application
        Running the test suite
        Analyzing a RoT service connection test
    Summary
    Further reading
Chapter 8: Streamlining with the Cloud
    The fundamentals of cloud development
    Coding and containers in the cloud
        Using VS Code via github.dev
        Dev containers
        Dev container services
        Initializing Gitpod
        Workspace images
    A crash course on containers
        Creating a Dockerfile
        Building and storing the containers
        Building arguments and multi-architecture support
        Running the dev containers
        Integrating dev containers with VS Code
    Executing software and debugging in the cloud
        Creating a custom Gitpod image
    Running and debugging
    Getting to know Keil Studio Cloud
    Other cloud development possibilities
        Cloud virtual machines
        Virtual desktop in VM
    Summary
    Further reading
Chapter 9: Implementing Continuous Integration
    Understanding the value of CI
    Why embedded software CI can be challenging
        Replacing board farms with virtual farms
    Examples of CI flows
        1 – Simple test scripts
        2 – In-house board farm setup
        3 – A virtual farm with AVH
    Summary
    Further reading
Chapter 10: Looking Ahead
    The now – tips to being a great developer
        The cloud
        Testing, CI, and safety
        Exploring useful examples and code
        Official Arm projects under development
    The future – how trends will affect Cortex-M developers
        Trend 1 – 5G and the Internet of Everything
        Trend 2 – environmental sustainability
        Trend 3 – decentralization of information
    The end
Index
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