In a recent announcement STMicroelectronics indicated that users of STM32 microcontrollers are now able to use the STM32Cube software development platform on all devices currently in production including the STM32F1 devices.  The company have also confirmed that any future STM32 families, including the STM32 F7 series, set to be introduced later this year, will benefit from STM32Cube support upon introduction.

STM32Cube simplifies porting of code from one STM32 series to another. The platform comprises the STM32CubeMX graphical configurator and initialization C-code generator, which provides wizards that help configure the pin-out, clock-tree, and peripherals and meet constraints on power consumption. After configuration, the tool generates C initialization code that matches the user’s choices. In addition, it can also automatically download the corresponding embedded software. The STM32CubeMX is not dedicated to a proprietary development environment but allows developers to create code for independent IDEs such as ARM/Keil MDK-ARM, IAR EWARM or GCC-based IDEs.

STM32Cube also provides embedded software packages for individual STM32 series.
Each embedded software package comprises a hardware abstraction layer (HAL) with fully portable APIs, checked using Grammatech CodeSonar for optimum code quality and reliability, as well as closely integrated middleware that eliminates the complex task of assessing dependencies between individual software components. In addition, a built-in automatic update mechanism relieves the burden of checking software status.

Items of middleware include the open-source TCP/IP stack (LwIP), FreeRTOS with CMSIS-RTOS wrapper, open-source FatFS file system, ST’s USB Host and Device library, ST’s touch-sensing library and ST’s STemWin professional graphics stack. These are provided on business-friendly terms such as BSD open-source licenses, or proprietary licenses for software developed and supported by ST.

The embedded software packages come with examples and demonstrations targeted at ST development boards including Evaluation Boards, Discovery Kits, and the latest STM32 Nucleo-boards line.

STM32Cube comprising STM32CubeMX and series-specific embedded software is available free of charge.