Arm Cortex®-M23: New Innovative Product from Nuvoton
The world’s largest embedded system annual fair “Embedded World”, took place in Nuremberg, Germany. Many companies working on and developing embedded systems attended this fair as participants or visitors. In this fair, it is possible to follow the latest technology on the embedded systems. Those who follow closely know that all the microprocessor companies that we have evaluated previously are striving for developing Arm® Cortex®-M23-based products. Their aim is to be able to get a place for themselves at this fair.
So, what is this Arm® Cortex®-M23 and why is it so important?
The Arm company has put its stamp on the agenda by launching a new core in recent months. The name of this core is Arm® Cortex®-M23. While Arm® Cortex®-M0 / M3 / M4 are traditionally used in systems made using microprocessors, there must be a logical reason for ARM to remove the Arm® Cortex®-M23 core. As you may guess, this reason is the Internet of Things (IoT), which is one of the main topics lately. The rise of the Internet of Things era has increased the awareness of integration of the physical world into digital systems. While efficiency improvements and economic benefits have lagged behind the digitalization of our daily lives, it has also put pressure on system designers to constantly connect data and offer innovative products that can smoothly exchange data. Since security and power consumption are the basic requirements of IoT applications, the microprocessor companies have focused specifically on security and power consumption issues. With the Internet of Things, it is now possible to open any product to the internet, monitor and control them remotely, and make them “talk” between each other. Although opening the devices to this external environment has added some features, it also brings vulnerability to the systems. We all want to set the boiler to the desired temperature before we arrive home and enter a warm house, or enter our house without using a key with the fingerprint device we have integrated into our external door.
This adds a value to human life. But none of us want anyone other than the people we allow to access our boiler, or to enter our house without permission. This is where the Arm® Cortex®-M23 comes in. While tens of thousands of devices are opened to internet every day, the level of security is limited only by the skills of the software developer. This creates systems that we call “unsafe”. Arm has designed this new Arm® Cortex®-M23 core differently from other structures. There are two different layers here. One of them is the traditional microprocessor layer, and the other is the hardware security layer. Nuvoton company, which Ozdisan Elektronik is a distributor of, has become a pioneer in the industry by developing the NuMicro® M2351 series microprocessor based on Arm® Cortex®-M23, which is classified as “safe” in the literature. The NuMicro® M2351 processor is a family of microprocessors focused on IoT security and powered by TrustZone®. The NuMicro® M2351 microprocessor series is powered by Arm® Cortex®-M23 core, which includes TrustZone® for the Armv8-M architecture that increases traditional firmware security to a new level of robust software security. With the TrustZone® application, the memory and peripherals can be divided into safe and unsafe sections in order to achieve data integrity, firmware update and operational security. In addition, TrustZone® for Armv8-M provides the benefit of transiting between hardware-safe and non-hardware-safe worlds for faster transitions and higher power efficiency. Capable of operating at very low powers, the NuMicro® M2351 series microprocessor family working at 64MHz frequencies and equipped with 512Kb embedded flash memory supports secure software update and 96Kb embedded Sram by working in double-sequence mode. Also, the NuMicro® M2351 series provides high-performance UART, SPI, I²C, GPIO, USB and ISO 7816-3 peripherals for smart board systems. In addition, thanks to the level of security and efficient power management, it further supports the concept of the Internet of Things.
Arm® Platform Security Architecture (PSA) Support
Platform Security Architecture (PSA) is a set of threat models, security analyses, hardware and software specifications, and open source software reference applications. PSA is an addition to the entire Internet of Things ecosystem from Arm architecture. It offers a more economical approach to creating safer devices that work ideally with common rules and TrustZone technology for Armv8-M. In addition to Arm®PSA, Nuvoton has developed the Nuvoton Secure Microcontroller Platform (NuSMP) for better implementation of Internet of Things technology. NuSMP is a “hardware and software combination” designed to help users meet a wide variety of general-purpose security requirements. Nuvoton provides the developers with application notes, sample codes and training videos for each technology.
NuMicro® M2351
Security Features:
● Arm® Cortex®-M23 TrustZone® Technology
● 8-zone MPU_NS (zone that does not need security)
● 8-zone MPU_S (safe zone)
● 8-zone Security Attribution Units (SAU)
● Implementation Defined Attribution Unit (IDAU)
● 2 KB OTP ROM extra 1KB lock bit
● Hardware Crypto Accelerators
● CRC calculation unit
● Up to 6 tamper detection pins
● 96-bit Unique ID (UID), 128-bit Unique Customer ID (UCID)
● Arm® Platform Security Architecture (PSA) and Trusted Base System Architecture-M (TBSA-M) support
Applications:
● Secure IoT products,
● Environment Security Software,
● Development Business Model,
● Fingerprint Systems,
● Smart Home Applications,
