ac. Is ARM Cortex-M0 more powerful than Microchip PIC32?
QUESTION:
Is ARM Cortex-M0 microcontroller more powerful than Microchip PIC32?
ANSWER:
No.
Basically, it has deficiencies in almost all areas except price, which is advertised to be approximately 1.26 USD a piece. Paying around 5 USD for a PIC32MX250F128B won’t make a huge difference in an assembled PCB cost for hobbyists, but much more inbuilt functionality will. There are also cheaper PIC32 microcontrollers with less RAM and flash RAM that cost about 4 USD.
ARM Cortex-M0 (LPC1102_1104) key features:
ARM Cortex-M0 processor, running at frequencies of up to 50 MHz
ARM Cortex-M0 built-in Nested Vectored Interrupt Controller (NVIC)
Serial Wire Debug
System tick timer
32 kB on-chip flash programming memory
4 kB SRAM
In-System Programming (ISP) and In-Application Programming (IAP)
22 General Purpose I/O (GPIO) pins with configurable pull-up/-down resistors
High-current output driver (20 mA) on one pin
Programmable WatchDog Timer (WDT)
10-bit ADC with input multiplexing among 5 pins
UART with fractional baud rate generation
One SPI controller with SSP features and FIFO and multi-protocol capabilities
I²C-bus interface supporting full I²C-bus specification and Fast-mode Plus
Integrated PMU (Power Management Unit) to minimize power consumption
Power profiles residing in boot ROM (LPC1100Land LPC1100XL series only)
Unique device serial number for identification
Single 3.3 V power supply (1.8 V to 3.6 V)
Four general purpose counter/timers
Microchip PIC32 (PIC32MX250F128B) key features:
• 50 MHz/83DMIPS, 32-bit RISC CPU with less than 0.5 mA/MHz current consumption
• Two I2S/SPI modules for Codec and serial communications
• Peripheral Pin Select (PPS) functionality
• Parallel Master Port (PMP) for graphics interfaces
• Charge Time Measurement Unit (CTMU) :
- Supports mTouchTM Capacitive touch buttons and sliders
- Provides high-resolution time measurement (1 ns)
- On-chip temperature measurement capability
• Temperature Range - 40°C to 105°C
• 32-bit MIPS32® M4K® core with MIPS16e® mode for up to 40% smaller code size
• 128 kB EEPROM (flash RAM type) (plus an additional 3 KB of Boot Flash)with self read/write capability
• 32 kB SRAM memory
• 1.56 DMIPS/MHz (Dhrystone 2.1) performance
• Pin-compatible with most Microchip 16-bit devices
• Multiple power management modes
• 5 input compare units and 5 output compare units (PWM: generation, capture and compare)
• Integrated Temperature Indicator Module
• Configurable WDT with on-chip Low-Power RC oscillator for reliable operation
• Operating voltage range of 2.3V to 3.6V
• Peripheral Pin Select (PPS) functionality
• Up to 4 channels of hardware DMA with automatic data size detection
• Two UART and I2C™ modules
• Separate PLLs for CPU and USB clocks
• Hardware Real-Time Clock and Calendar (RTCC)
• Five 16-bit Timers/Counters (two 16-bit pairs combine to create two 32-bit timers)
• Five Capture inputs and Five Compare/PWM outputs
• Data communication: I2S, LJ, RJ, DSP modes
• Control interface: SPI and I2C™
• Master clock:
- Generation of fractional clock frequencies
- Can be synchronized with USB clock
- Can be tuned in run-time
• Up to 13-channel, 10-bit ADC
• Three Analog Comparators
• Charge Time Measurement Unit (CTMU)
• Four programming and debugging Interfaces
• In Circuit Serial Programming and Debug (ICSP/ICD)
• IEEE Standard 1149.2 compatible (JTAG) boundary scan