What this ARM Cortex-M3 brings to the board
The STMicroelectronics STM32F103R8T6TR is a 32-bit ARM Cortex-M3 MCU running at 72 MHz, with 64 KB of Flash program memory and 20 KB of RAM.
The 72 MHz clock rate on this Cortex-M3 paired with the 12-bit ADC (16 channels) and motor-control PWM timers gives deterministic timing for a motor-drive or PLC I/O slice.
Memory sizing — 64 KB Flash, 20 KB RAM
The Flash is enough for a bootloader, a Modbus RTU slave, and a few hundred lines of application code.
Package and assembly
The 64-LQFP (10x10 mm) is a standard surface-mount footprint. It reflows on a standard lead-free profile and is compatible with automated optical inspection.
