October 2017 DocID022708 Rev 6 1/260
1
PM0214
Programming manual
STM32F3 Series, STM32F4 Series, STM32L4 Series and
STM32L4+ Series Cortex
®
-M4 programming manual
Introduction
This programming manual provides information for application and system-level software
developers. It gives a full description of the STM32 Cortex
®
-M4 processor programming
model, instruction set and core peripherals.
The STM32F3 Series, STM32F4 Series, STM32L4 Series and STM32L4+ Series
Cortex
®
-M4 processor is a high performance 32-bit processor designed for the
microcontroller market. It offers significant benefits to developers, including:
• Outstanding processing performance combined with fast interrupt handling
• Enhanced system debug with extensive breakpoint and trace capabilities
• Efficient processor core, system and memories
• Ultra-low power consumption with integrated sleep modes
• Platform security
Reference documents
Available from STMicroelectronics web site www.st.com:
• STM32F3 Series, STM32F4 Series, STM32L4 Series and STM32L4+ Series
datasheets
• STM32F3 Series, STM32F4 Series, STM32L4 Series and STM32L4+ Series reference
manuals
www.st.com
Contents PM0214
2/260 DocID022708 Rev 6
Contents
1 About this document . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
1.1 Typographical conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
1.2 List of abbreviations for registers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
1.3 About the STM32 Cortex-M4 processor and core peripherals . . . . . . . . . 13
1.3.1 System level interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
1.3.2 Integrated configurable debug . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
1.3.3 Cortex-M4 processor features and benefits summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
1.3.4 Cortex-M4 core peripherals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2 The Cortex-M4 processor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
2.1 Programmers model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
2.1.1 Processor mode and privilege levels for software execution . . . . . . . . . 16
2.1.2 Stacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
2.1.3 Core registers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
2.1.4 Exceptions and interrupts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
2.1.5 Data types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
2.1.6 The Cortex microcontroller software interface standard (CMSIS) . . . . . 25
2.2 Memory model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
2.2.1 Memory regions, types and attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
2.2.2 Memory system ordering of memory accesses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
2.2.3 Behavior of memory accesses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
2.2.4 Software ordering of memory accesses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
2.2.5 Bit-banding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
2.2.6 Memory endianness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
2.2.7 Synchronization primitives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
2.2.8 Programming hints for the synchronization primitives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
2.3 Exception model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
2.3.1 Exception states . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
2.3.2 Exception types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
2.3.3 Exception handlers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
2.3.4 Vector table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
2.3.5 Exception priorities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
2.3.6 Interrupt priority grouping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
2.3.7 Exception entry and return . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
