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greenpowerZONE Products for the week of March 2, 2009
Texas Instruments Says…
Double Floating-Point Performance For Development Of More Intelligent, Energy Efficient High-End Real-Time Control Applications
Control-oriented performance, peripherals and development tools enable fast, efficient design of servo drives, renewable energy and power line monitoring applications
High-end control applications require high performance, floating-point precision and optimized control peripherals to meet stringent system efficiency, accuracy and reliability requirements. Addressing this need, Texas Instruments Incorporated has announced the TMS320C2834x Delfino controllers that double floating-point performance over existing TMS320C2000 devices and include 516KB of single cycle access RAM memory, high resolution pulse width modulation outputs (PWMs) as well as other control-oriented features. The new Delfino devices are supported by two new modular controlCARD tools designed to jump start development of real-time control applications such as servo drives, renewable energy, power line monitoring and driver assistance.
Key features and benefits of C2834x Delfino controllers
- 300 MHz C28x core for fast interrupt response, minimal latency, execution of complex control algorithms and real-time data analysis
- 32-bit floating-point unit eases programming of magnitude calculations, eliminates scaling and saturation burden and improves performance of algorithms such as Park transforms and proportional integral derivatives (PID)
- 516 KB on-chip single cycle access RAM enables high-speed program execution and data access
- Flexible 65ps high-resolution PWM modules allow for optimal precision
- CAN, I2C, SPI and standard serial interface (SCI) peripherals provide easy connectivity for management of system communication
- External ADC interface gives developers flexibility to select from TI’s broad portfolio of high-accuracy analog-to-digital converters
- Code compatibility across the C2000 platform enables developers to easily scale product lines and reuse code in controllers ranging from 40 MHz Piccolo to 300 MHz Delfino
The C28343 and C28346 are the first devices in the C2834x series and are supported by the DIM100 controlCARD and DIM168 controlCARD. The controlCARDs are modular daughtercards designed to plug into TI’s portfolio of evaluation and application boards such as the recently announced Renewable Energy Developer’s Kit, Resonant DC/DC Developer’s Kit and Peripheral Explorer Developer’s Kit.
TI provides complementary analog signal chain and power management technology that helps enhance the system performance of applications based on Delfino floating-point controllers. TI's analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) provide resolution, speed and an interface that offers data rates from 8-bits at 100 mega samples per second (MSPS) to 32-bits at 100 SPS. In addition, TI’s full range of high-efficiency power management solutions allows developers to more easily optimize their system power requirements.
EN-Genius Says…
TI’s new floating point digital signal controllers complement their value-priced fixed-point TMS320F280xx series with an instruction set-compatible upgrade that delivers a whole bunch more compute power and a richer I/O mix. Anybody designing precision motion control systems will appreciate the increased amplitude, phase and time resolution it delivers but its potential for so-called green power applications is even more exciting. Delfino’s ability to support multiple tasks in high-efficiency motor drives, and advanced power converters for wind and solar applications will help bring down the cost of renewable energy generation. Meanwhile this powerful DSC looks like it could also be a very handy building block for the power line monitoring and communication systems that will play an integral role in distributed generation and Smart Grid systems.
If you’re familiar with TI’s bargain-priced Piccolo series of DSCs (reviewed here September 2008) you have a good idea of the new Delfino series architecture. One of the big changes, besides the addition of the floating point unit, is that Piccolo’s on-chip Flash has been swapped out for faster embedded RAM (up to 516 kbyte) that can keep up with the processor’s 150 - 300MHz clock speeds. Using fast on-chip RAM to eliminate memory wait states and the reduced code complexity made possible by the floating point unit can dramatically cut the number of cycles it takes to perform critical control functions. To match the processor speed, Delfino’s PWM I/O modules now boast a maximum resolution of 65 ps.
Despite the big bump in performance it enjoys, Delfino’s power consumption remains relatively modest. TI says it is still characterizing the C2834x, but at the full 300 MHz speed, with everything enabled, its current consumption is less than 500 mA. Initial tests indicate that the 150 MHz F2833x devices have a current consumption of about 380 mA. TI stresses that both of these numbers are worst case numbers, with everything enabled and functioning on the chip.
As the press release states, the increased time resolution and calculation precision make these processors valuable in motor control and power conversion systems because they can support high-precision advanced vector control algorithms, and other compute-intensive software required for improved operating efficiency. Other slices of the processor’s compute power can be used to run real-time diagnostics that allow systems to compensate for aging components and, if necessary, catch an out-of-tolerance condition before it can cause damage. Some of Delfino’s MFLOPs can also used for power line monitoring to detect phase glitches, voltage sags and other anomalies before they can pose a hazard to the equipment it is driving.
When combined with the processor’s ability to support communications protocols, you have a flexible system element that can work cooperatively with each other in distributed control or generating systems. If, for example, a Delfino-based grid-tied solar inverter supported a power line communication (PLC) protocol, it would be able to advertise the fact that it had a certain amount of electrical power available and negotiate a fair market price for it with the local power grid. Likewise, a plug-in hybrid vehicle’s charging system might wait until it could negotiate a good price on off-peak energy to top up its battery. In the near future, that same vehicle charger might sell a portion of its available energy back to the grid to help it meet peak load demands without firing up an expensive, inefficient fossil-powered peaking plant.
While these so-called Smart Grid functions may sound like science fiction, they are already under development and they will play a starring role in helping our power grids learn to work with the intermittent or cyclical nature of many renewable energy sources. Adding intelligence and load-point power quality monitoring will also help make the grid more resilient by predicting potential problems before they become big enough to be a threat to the system. Most of these functions can already be implemented with a mix of DSPs, standard embedded processors and FPGAs but Delfino’s generous complement of analog I/O, communication interfaces, and abundant DSC capabilities should help cut BOM and development costs enough to dramatically accelerate their market acceptance.
I’d expect that for the first year or so Smart Grid and renewable energy applications will form only a small fraction of Delfino’s sales as it finds an immediate user base in precision motion control and other industrial systems. This should change as the processors help jump-start widespread deployment of Smart Grids and distributed generating systems by cutting the cost of high-capacity solar inverters, wind generating systems and intelligent power system interfaces.
The Delfino series of C2000 microcontrollers are sampling today and will start at $8.95 in volume production. Customers can now place sample orders for the first two configurations available from the C2834x series. The TMX320C28346, starting at $19.70 (100 unit pricing), is the superset configuration operating at 300 MHz and includes 516 kbyte of on-chip RAM. The TMX320C28343 operates at 200 MHz, includes 260 kbyte of on-chip RAM and starts at $13.50 (100 unit pricing).
The C28346 DIM168 and C28343 DIM100 Experimenter’s Kits (TMDXDOCK28346-168 and TMDXDOCK28343) are also available and are priced at $189 and $159, respectively.
Product Folder C28346
Product Folder C28343
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