Custom Instructions, a New Feature of Armv8-M
Instructions can be added to the CPU without software fragmentation


On the 14th, Arm unveiled custom instructions, a new feature for embedded CPUs.

At Arm TechCon, held in San Jose, California, from the 8th to the 10th, Arm CEO Simon Segars unveiled Arm Custom Instructions, a new feature for the Armv8-M architecture.

Arm custom instructions will be applied first to Arm Cortex-M33 CPUs starting in the first half of 2020 and will be provided to new and existing license holders at no additional cost.

SoC designers can add desired commands to specific embedded and IoT applications through Arm custom instructions without the risk of software fragmentation, and Arm Trustzone technology is applied.
<bArm custom instructions enable designers to easily add user-defined data path extensions while maintaining the existing software ecosystem by modifying the CPU to allocate encoding space.

In addition to the existing co-processor interface, custom instructions enable the Cortex-M33 CPU to be extended through various types of accelerators optimized for edge computing use cases, including machine learning and AI.

Dipti Vachani, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Arm’s Automotive and IoT Business Unit, stated, “Arm has developed Arm Custom Instructions to facilitate tight integration between hardware and software designs,” adding, “The goal is to maximize device differentiation while achieving acceleration for specific applications.”

Meanwhile, Arm plans to provide custom instructions as a standard feature of Cortex-M CPUs in the future. More than 50 billion Cortex-M CPUs have been shipped to date.