UK chip designer Arm has made two additions to its Cortex-M and Cortex-A processors, streamlining and accelerating the IoT and embedded development process.

As part of an expanded roadmap, Arm is launching the Cortex-M85 processor, the highest-performing and most secure Cortex-M to date, and expanding Arm Virtual Hardware to more platforms, including third-party devices, to make the development process more accessible.

“Developers drive the future of the IoT, but they face an ever-increasing demand for higher performance, increased security and less complex development flows,” said Mohamed Awad, vice president at Arm. “The IoT runs on Arm, and we have a responsibility to create greater opportunities for IoT innovation and scale by continually raising the bar on performance, simplified development and software reuse for our ecosystem.”

Six months ago, Arm signalled a shift in its design approach for the IoT and embedded markets, combining hardware IP, platform software, machine-learning (ML) models, tools and more to simplify development and accelerate product design. At the heart of this is Arm Corstone, a pre-integrated, pre-verified IP subsystem that frees silicon designers to focus their time and efforts on differentiation.

This month’s launch is designed for Cortex-A and based on Corstone-1000. It makes the power and potential of platform operating systems such as Linux easily available to IoT developers. It allows application-class workloads to be developed for devices such as smart wearables, gateways and high-end smart cameras.

Since the Corstone-1000 is Arm SystemReady-IR compliant and features a hardware secure enclave that supports PSA Certified for a higher level of security, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) can immediately enjoy the benefits of Project Cassini.

Arm’s option for voice recognition is based on the Corstone-310 subsystem. It is pre-integrated with the Cortex-M85 and the Arm Ethos-U55 to create the firm’s highest ever performance MCU-based design. This is targeted at use-cases ranging from smart speakers and thermostats to drones and factory robots. Developers can also take the Corstone-310 and create a whole range of additional products by combining it with different reference software.

The Cortex-M85 is the highest performance Cortex-M processor to date and is a natural architectural upgrade path to Arm v8-M for applications requiring higher performance. It offers a 30% scalar performance uplift compared with the Cortex-M7, Helium technology to support endpoint ML and DSP workloads, and enhanced security with TrustZone. It also includes pointer authentication and branch target identification (PACBTI), an architectural feature with enhanced software attack threat mitigation to help achieve PSA Certified level two, a security baseline for IoT deployments.

Arm Virtual Hardware is an offering designed to enable software development in advance of silicon. It allows the Arm ecosystem to adopt cloud-based development without the need for large custom hardware farms. Hundreds of developers have used Virtual Hardware to date and, based on developer feedback, Arm is announcing several virtual devices to broaden Virtual Hardware’s appeal.

Additions will include Virtual Hardware for the new Corstone designs as well as seven Cortex-M processors ranging from Cortex-M0 to Cortex-M33. Arm is further expanding the library with third-party hardware from partners including NXP Semiconductors, ST Microelectronics and Raspberry Pi.

Independent software vendors and cloud service providers can now take advantage of the billions of Arm-based IoT and embedded devices which are already deployed.

To scale, the Cortex-M software ecosystem needs to coalesce around a consistent set of standards that enable the portability and re-use of software across a range of devices. Project Centauri was launched to deliver exactly that, so developers can focus on what really matters – innovation and differentiation. It includes Open-CMSIS-Pack, which is already supported by 9500 microcontrollers and 450 boards, enabling software vendors to scale their offerings across all these devices.

Today, Arm continues to invest in Project Centauri by delivering the first release of the Open IoT SDK Framework. This contains the Open-CMSIS-CDI software standard, a community driven project hosted in Linaro that defines a common device interface for the Cortex-M ecosystem. Eight industry players are already involved including silicon partners, cloud service providers, original design manufacturers and OEMs.

Cortex-M85, Corstone-310 and Corstone-1000 are available for licensing now and can be accessed immediately as Arm Virtual Hardware in the cloud.