Altera how to innovate FPGA platform environment for industrial applications
The application of FPGA in the industrial field is shifting from auxiliary devices to core functional devices. This is mainly due to the industry's demand for equipment function subdivision, differentiated advantages, innovative IP, software introduction, and production cycle and cost. According to Jiang Yungui, market development manager of the Industrial Business Division of Altera Asia Pacific, for industrial motor control system manufacturers, the challenges of efficiency and performance, communication requirements, and cost and functional safety make the industry seek more effective device solutions, and the features of FPGA Good coverage of traditional MCU, DSP, ASIC and ASSP devices. Altera recently launched a series of solutions and platforms for industrial applications, including motor control development workbenches, FPGA-based industrial Ethernet design integrated licensing structures, and the updated 2012 functional safety package.
Decentralized structure, miniaturization, high interconnectivity, optimized output rate, safety and special features are the development trends of intelligent drive technology for motor control. Altera's new motor control development workbench includes a set of customizable single-axis and multi-axis chip drive reference designs, as well as a series of motor control hardware development boards. The workbench fully utilizes DSP hardware and soft core embedding in Altera CycloneIV and Cyclone V FPGAs The function of the CPU. Among them, Altera Cyclone V SoC FPGA uses 28nm process, and its hardware processor subsystem (HPS) uses ARM's Cortex-A9 dual-core processor, which can flexibly divide the hardware and software functions, helping designers meet their special end applications Performance requirements.
The new development workbench provides a system-level development environment, and integrates an accelerated low-latency control loop in the FPGA to support designers to use advanced software algorithms to implement system management and advanced control functions, thereby improving designer efficiency. The workbench supports the model-based design method in MATLAB / Simulink and can develop motor control loops that require a large number of DSPs, for example, the control loops used for on-site positioning control. Through Altera's DSP Builder and Qsys system-level design tools to achieve the best mapping of FPGA co-processors, and seamless integration with software running in integrated processors. "Customers who use Altera's SoC virtual target to develop their application software can quickly import their application software into the SoC, which can save months of development time." Jiang Yungui said. It is reported that the initial sample model of the currently released Cyclone V SoC FPGA is 5CSXA6, with a 110K logic unit.
Industrial Ethernet is not only a key technology for connecting various units in industrial electronic systems, but also a highly subdivided technology, which includes various different protocols. The programmable capability of FPGA can quickly and easily support different protocol standards. Therefore, supporting the market of industrial Ethernet is one of the hot applications of FPGA. Jiang Yungui said that Altera's licensing structure can simplify FPGA-based industrial Ethernet design integration in factory automation systems. This new licensing structure was jointly developed with SofTIng Industrial Automation Co., Ltd., through which system developers can use advanced industrial Ethernet protocols, no front-end licensing fees, no royalties per unit report, and no extension of negotiation. The agreement between the two companies ensures that customers can implement various industrial Ethernet protocols in an Altera FPGA, including PROFINET RT, PRO FI N ET I RT, Ethernet, IP / Modbus TCP / IP, EtherNet / IP, and PROFIBUS DP Etc., and all of them have been hardware tested and fully compatible. "Altera ’s industrial Ethernet solution implements protocol IP and software stack in an FPGA with an embedded processor. The embedded processor configures the FPGA according to the required protocol IP when it is powered on. In this way, a circuit The board can adapt to multiple protocols without changing the hardware. "Jiang Yungui said.
Functional safety refers to reducing the risk of damage or casualties when random, systematic or common cause failures occur in safety-related systems. Altera's 2012 functional safety package supports more devices and enhanced software support. When customers use Cyclone IV FPGAs to develop safety-critical designs, they reduce the risk of certification and comply with the latest safety regulations. Altera has partnered with TüV Rheinland, an independent organization for global safety and quality testing, to ensure that this certification, which includes Cyclone IV FPGAs, provides the required safety design process, IP, and development for designs that must comply with safety integrity level 3 (SIL3) tool. Using this pre-tested package, system designers have simplified their certification process, reduced the total cost of design, and ensured that the products comply with the global IEC61508 standard. "At present, all Altera FPGAs supported by Quartus II design software 11.0 SP1 have been pre-certified by TüV Rheinland. The cooperation between the two parties has realized the verification and certification process embedded in the Altera complete tool chain, supporting VHDL and C code development and simulation and Verification, "Jiang Yungui said," Our FPGA solution is the world ’s first and only one that has been certified for functional safety. "It is reported that Shanghai Mitsubishi Elevator Company has adopted this functional safety package in its escalator and moving sidewalk projects. It is required to comply with the GB16899 standard recently established by China for safety certification. In addition, CycloneV certification is underway and is expected to be passed by the end of the year.
Xinxiang Mina Import & Export Co., Ltd. , https://www.mina-motor.cn