Divide (and Conquer) By Zero

Just when you think ARM can't sink any lower, they do this.

I mean that in a good way. ARM – effectively the world’s largest microprocessor company – has come out with yet another variation on its ubiquitous CPU architectural theme. This time it's called the Cortex-M0+ because, well, M0 was already taken.

Yes, the company has officially run out of numbers.

The em-zero-plus is a lot like the em-zero, of course, but different. It's got a plus sign in its name, for one. And it's got some features that the M0 doesn't have. Your first impulse might be to conclude that the M0+ is a replacement for the M0 – that was certainly my first impression – but it's not. The official ARM party line is that the M0 and the M0+ will happily coexist side by side, and that one does not necessarily replace the other.