Getting start with ARM MCU?

[javad2040]

hi.
I work with AVR Microcontroller and Xilinx FPGA for several years, also i like work with ARM Microcontroller.
my problem is :
 1)  several company ex: ST, NXP, ... design chip for special purposes. by search i notice that ST, design the discovery board that is suitable for    beginner. but this board have several limitations. for example i like connect the FPGA to ARM MCU, ...
what is way is better? 1-design the a board that contain FPGA, ARM and several prepherals. 2- since i beginner for work with ARM, i use this board for first learning.
 2) which Compiler is easy and better for work with ARM MCU?

[hans]

How do you want to connect the FPGA and ARM together? That is a highly application specific subject.

I.e. a 115k2 UART is also a connection. Not very fast, but it is one.
You could also use the external memory bus connected to FPGA, but then the FPGA must behave like a slave memory device.
SPI slave could also be an option.
Or perhaps SQI with the newer STM32F4 and F7 parts, which have memory map integration.

Some microcontrollers have more options in this respect.

I've used IAR and Keil compilers professionally before. They are nice IDE's + toolchains, but in my experience GCC holds up very well. Some of these IDE's offer free versions with code size limitations, but TBH a 32K limit is quite small if you need some libraries (TCP/IP, Filesystems, Compression libraries, etc.).
In fact if you want cutting edge C++17 support, then perhaps GCC is a better choice because packages close to upstream are readily available.

[stmdude]

There's some good comments here.

Beware with the ST dev-boards though. They have a tendency to cram _a lot_ of peripherals on them, so very few pins are actually available to use for your own stuff. (This is mostly true about the -EVAL and -DISCO* boards). Check the schematics before you decide on what board you wanna go with.

[Svuppe]

what is way is better? 1-design the a board that contain FPGA, ARM and several prepherals. 2- since i beginner for work with ARM, i use this board for first learning.

I have recently had more or less the same thoughts as you, only I have some ARM experience from work and is a complete noob regarding FPGAs. I ended up ordering an Arty Z7 board. It contains a dual core ARM Cortex-A9 and a FPGA in the same chip. And then it has an Arduino Shield connector for integrating all the sensors you'd like.

For an ARM board without FPGA, I am going to have a go at BeagleBone Green.

[danadak]

Low cost ARM, from M0 to M3 to dual core M0+/M4.

For me what stands out is -

1) Routability
2) Fast 12 bit SAR A/D and slow 20 bit DelSig
3) DFB (Digital Filter Block) that is dual channel, handle FIR or IIR filters, or DFB
can be used as a GP fast processor block, similar to RISC block
4) MSI logic elements GUI based and/or the UDB Verilog capability. Eg. the FPGA
like capability
5) Onboard Vref
6) IDAC, VDAC, OpAmps (up to 4), comparator, mixer, switch cap, analog mux....
7) LCD,  COM, UART, I2C, I2S, One Wire, SPI, Parallel, LIN, CAN, BLE, USB
9) Custom components capability, create with schematic capture or Verilog
10) DMA to offload processes like filters, COM, Display
11) ARM M0 (PSOC 4) or M3 (PSOC  5LP) or 8051 core(PSOC 3) or M0+/M4 dual core PSOC 6
12) Extensive clock generation capabilities
13) All components supported by extensive prewritten APIs

https://www.element14.com/community/thread/23736/l/100-projects-in-100-days?displayFullThread=true

http://www.cypress.com/documentation/code-examples/psoc-345-code-examples

Great video library

Attached component list.  A component is an on chip HW resource.

Free GUI design tool with schematic capture, "Creator". Components have rich API library attached
to each component. Compilers free as well.

PSOC 4 is low end of family, consider 5LP parts as well. PSOC 4 also has arduino footprint boards (pioneer) as well. PSOC 6 dual core M0+/M4.

https://www.elektormagazine.com/labs/robot-build-with-cypress-psoc

http://www.cypress.com/products/32-bit-arm-cortex-m-psoc





https://brightcove.hs.llnwd.net/e1/uds/pd/1362235890001/1362235890001_5241352463001_2606504288001.mp4?pubId=1362235890001&videoId=2606504288001



Regards, Dana.