Preface

Arm Cortex-M processors are ideal for a wide variety of applications. They are highly visible in microcontrollers and silently work in every other area of electronic design, from small sensors to large servers. In the fourth quarter of 2020, Arm reported a record 4.4 billion chips shipped with Cortex-M processors.

Consequently, the world of software development for embedded and IoT devices is broad. There are hundreds of companies creating thousands of Cortex-M chips, development boards, software libraries, and development tools. While all these components are intended to make your job developing software for Cortex-M devices easier, it is a challenge to understand which components to use on a specific project.

Our goal is to alleviate these challenges and enable you to focus on building better Cortex-M software. We hope our knowledge and experience will help you avoid frustration and spend more time doing what you enjoy.

This book is split into two parts. Part 1, Get Set Up, focuses on how to select the right components to make a Cortex-M based project successful. We cover which Cortex-M processor makes sense for your application—and hardware options to simplify development. Next is an overview of the large variety of software components available in the Cortex-M ecosystem, with context on when to use them. This part ends with a discussion on embedded software tool selection. After reading Part 1, you should be familiar with what exists in the broad Cortex-M ecosystem and be able to translate your project requirements into the right hardware, software, and tools to be successful.

Part 2, Sharpen Your Skills, dives into specific topics of Cortex-M software development. We cover both software topics (including system startup, optimization, machine learning, and security) and software development topics (including cloud services and continuous integration testing). Each topic will be explained in theory and in practice, with code examples for you to get experience with along the way. If you are interested in a specific topic, feel free to investigate that chapter sooner; just note later chapters may refer to techniques described earlier in the book.