Cortex-M0 sense or nonsense?

Recently ARM announced the availability of Cortex-M0, most likely the smallest 32-bit core on the market. There is some information from ARM about the M0 in a Cortex-M0 Flyer.

Intriguing is the data about the very low power. Depending on the leakage of a process used, such an M0 core could provide significant improvement for battery operated applications. We are all looking forward to see the first real-world implementations of the M0. Based on the announcement from ARM and NXP, there are plans to have MCUs available for sampling within 2009.

Other key players in the Cortex-Mx market such as Luminary and ST Microelectronics, both with offerings using the Cortex-M3, are very reluctant to jump yet on another core / spend the money for another license. The difference in die size between a Cortex-M3 and a Cortex-M0 when using a 180nm or smaller process is less than 1% of the overall die size for a typical microcontroller, thus having minimal impact on cost. In the past, implementation of power saving mechanisms have resulted in vastly different values for current consumption, between different MCUs, using the same Cortex-M3 core. A first class M3-implementation with a low leakage process will most likely beat a M0-implementation using a process that has not been optimized for low leakage.

Only time will tell whether the announcement of the Cortex-M0 was closer to the work of a genius or closer to a flop. One statement seems certain, the Cortex-M family of cores with the new software standard CMSIS will be a very significant player in the 32-bit microcontroller world.

Какво искаш да кажеш "цена която трудно NXP може да бие".

2378 например в момента няма аналог с такива възможности на такава цена (не гледай дигикей).
М3 на NXP трябва да вървят на 100MHz. Колко такива имат Luminary или ST?

М3 на NXP трябва да вървят на 100MHz. Колко такива имат Luminary или ST?