May 17, 2012, Seoul – STMicroelectronics, which created a new sensation in the MCU field with its domestic Cortex-M3, is making headlines by announcing the STM32F0, equipped with a Cortex-M0 core, following the announcement of the STM32F4, equipped with a high-performance MCU-class Cortex-M4 core, last year.

MCUs equipped with the existing Cortex-M3 are currently widely used for general purposes, demonstrating optimal performance in industrial equipment, building service controllers, medical devices, and computer peripherals based on ARM's ultra-low power capabilities. Meanwhile, the STM43F4, equipped with the Cortex-M4, is used as a higher-performance product by adding DSP and FPU functions to the existing M3 core.

In contrast, the recently announced Cortex-M0 was launched with a direct targeting of the 8-bit market, which was previously dominated by ATMEL and PIC, rather than the high-performance MCU market. ST had previously approached the 16-bit and 8-bit markets with 32-bit products, but there was a period when the high price of 32-bit products and the inability to attract the attention of existing 8-bit users proved insufficient. However, thanks to the rapid market penetration of the STM32 family with the Cortex-M3 core and ST's characteristic fast technical support, ST currently holds a 60–70% market share in the Cortex-M3 market. The convenient migration between various MCUs using the Cortex-M Core series, stable MCU replacement via PIN-to-PIN, and MCU library changes through diverse and simple function calls at each level likely foreshadow the successful market entry of the newly released STM32F0 equipped with the Cortex-M0.