Introduction to ARM

What is ARM?

ARM stands for Advanced RISC Machine (originally Acorn RISC Machine)

• Family of Instruction Set Architectures (ISA)
• First used as co-processor for BBC Micro in 1985
• Renamed to Advanced RISC Machine in 1990
• Designed by ARM Ltd., manufactured by various licensees
• Better performance-per-watt than x86

Range of ARM Designs

ARM processors range from small to large:

• Cortex M: Microcontrollers
• Cortex R: Real-time processors
• Cortex A: Application processors

Some run embedded code while others run Linux/Android. All execute the ARM instruction set.

ARM Instruction Sets

Three Main Instruction Sets:

A32: Full ARM 32-bit instruction set

• Standard 32-bit instructions

A64: 64-bit version