Fujitsu Semiconductor Launches New FM4 Family RISC Microcontrollers

Fujitsu Semiconductor announced the launch of the new FM4 Family of 32-bit general purpose RISC microcontrollers based on ARM Cortex™-M4 processor core, as well as a new FM0+ family adopting the Cortex-M0+ core. Fujitsu plans to release sample quantities of products in these new families within 2013, and will also begin full-scale production of these products later in the year. Combined with current FM3 Family of microcontrollers, the group of products featuring the Cortex-M4, M3, and M0+ processor cores will amount to a line-up of more than 700 different products. These products with a consistent architecture & flexibly now more broadly meet the growing customer need for higher performance and lower power consumption.

Fujitsu Semiconductor initially released its FM3 Family of 32-bit general purpose RISC microcontrollers based on the ARM Cortex-M3 processor core in 2010, and to date has developed 463 products within the line-up. While continuing to expand the FM3 Family with new products that feature high capacity flash memory and lower pin-counts, Fujitsu Semiconductor will further enhance its microcontroller line-up with the addition of two entirely new families starting from 2013, the FM4 Family and the FM0+ Family. The FM4 Family will cover the high-end product range, featuring higher performance and enhanced functionality, and will additionally feature DSP (Digital Signal Processor) and FPU (Floating-Point number processing Unit). The FM0+ Family will cover the low-end product range, featuring more compact, energy efficient, and lower-leakage-current products compared to the FM3 Family.

By bringing new products to the market that feature the latest 3 types of Cortex-M processor cores, customers will not only be able to select products to suit a broader range of applications, but they will also be able to utilize the enhanced scalability of each core to smoothly transition from low-end to high-end equipment, or vice-versa.

The FM4 Family is based on the Cortex-M4 processor core, which features DSP and FPU functionality not included in the Cortex-M3 core, and has also received enhancements to the overall processing power of the CPU. Furthermore, while FPU is a core option, Fujitsu Semiconductor plans to equip all products in the FM4 Family with this feature. While continuing the abundant peripheral functions of the FM3 Family, the FM4 Family will be further strengthened with the addition of SDRAM and SD card interface functions, an expanded package line-up, and the addition of a wide range of timers and serial communications functions, all delivered with flash technology, which has a solid track record also in automotive applications. In addition to inverter control functions, various communication functions, CAN, USB2.0 and Ethernet support, the FM4 Family will also be equipped with high-speed serial communications functions, as well as high-speed, high-performance AD converters. These features make these products ideal for motor controls and network controls in factory automation applications as well as inverters and other industrial equipment.