SmartFusion is a family of
microcontrollers
A microcontroller (MC, uC, or μC) or microcontroller unit (MCU) is a small computer on a single integrated circuit. A microcontroller contains one or more CPUs (processor cores) along with memory and programmable input/output peripherals. Pro ...
with an integrated
FPGA
A field-programmable gate array (FPGA) is a type of configurable integrated circuit that can be repeatedly programmed after manufacturing. FPGAs are a subset of logic devices referred to as programmable logic devices (PLDs). They consist of a ...
of
Actel. The device includes an
ARM Cortex-M3 hard processor core (with up to 512 KB of flash and 64 KB of RAM) and analog peripherals such as a multi-channel ADC and DACs in addition to their flash-based FPGA fabric.
Models
Development hardware
Actel also sells two development boards that include an SmartFusion chip. One is the SmartFusion Evaluation Kit which is a low cost board with an SmartFusion A2F200 and sold for $99. Another is the SmartFusion Development Kit which is a fully featured board with an SmartFusion A2F500 and is sold for $999.
Development tools
Documentation
The amount of documentation for all ARM chips is daunting, especially for newcomers. The documentation for microcontrollers from past decades would easily be inclusive in a single document, but as chips have evolved so has the documentation grown. The total documentation is especially hard to grasp for all ARM chips since it consists of documents from the IC manufacturer (
Actel) and documents from CPU core vendor (
ARM Holdings
Arm Holdings plc (formerly an acronym for Advanced RISC Machines and originally Acorn RISC Machine) is a British semiconductor and software design company based in Cambridge, England, whose primary business is the design of central processing ...
).
A typical top-down documentation tree is: manufacturer website, manufacturer marketing slides, manufacturer datasheet for the exact physical chip, manufacturer detailed reference manual that describes common peripherals and aspects of a physical chip family, ARM core generic user guide, ARM core technical reference manual, ARM architecture reference manual that describes the instruction set(s).
;SmartFusion documentation tree (top to bottom):
# SmartFusion website.
# SmartFusion marketing slides.
# SmartFusion datasheets.
# SmartFusion reference manuals.
# ARM core website.
# ARM core generic user guide.
# ARM core technical reference manual.
# ARM architecture reference manual.
Actel has additional documents, such as: evaluation board user manuals, application notes, getting started guides, software library documents, errata, and more. See
External Links
An internal link is a type of hyperlink on a web page to another page or resource, such as an image or document, on the same website or domain. It is the opposite of an external link, a link that directs a user to content that is outside its d ...
section for links to official STM32 and ARM documents.
See also
*
ARM architecture
ARM (stylised in lowercase as arm, formerly an acronym for Advanced RISC Machines and originally Acorn RISC Machine) is a family of reduced instruction set computer, RISC instruction set architectures (ISAs) for central processing unit, com ...
,
List of ARM microprocessor cores,
ARM Cortex-M
*
Microcontroller
A microcontroller (MC, uC, or μC) or microcontroller unit (MCU) is a small computer on a single integrated circuit. A microcontroller contains one or more CPUs (processor cores) along with memory and programmable input/output peripherals. Pro ...
,
List of common microcontrollers
*
Embedded system
An embedded system is a specialized computer system—a combination of a computer processor, computer memory, and input/output peripheral devices—that has a dedicated function within a larger mechanical or electronic system. It is e ...
,
Single-board microcontroller
*
FPGA
A field-programmable gate array (FPGA) is a type of configurable integrated circuit that can be repeatedly programmed after manufacturing. FPGAs are a subset of logic devices referred to as programmable logic devices (PLDs). They consist of a ...
References
Further reading
External links
;SmartFusion Official Documents
*
;ARM Official Documents
;Other
Running eCos on SmartFusion evaluation kit
{{Microcontrollers
ARM-based microcontrollers
Gate arrays