High-performance SmartFusion2 SoC FPGA dual-axis motor control kit

Microsemi has announced availability of its SmartFusion2 SoC FPGA dual-axis motor control kit with a modular motor control IP suite and reference design. The kit, which simplifies motor control designs using a single SoC FPGA, accelerates time to market and is scalable across multiple industries such as industrial, aerospace and defence. Typical applications include factory and process automation, robotics, transportation, avionics and defence motor control platforms. The SoC integration of system functions helps to lower total cost of ownership. The SmartFusion2 SoC FPGA dual-axis motor control kit comes ready to use out of the box with a compact evaluation board (hardware), access to Microsemi’s encrypted motor control IP, and a Libero Gold Edition (software) license to jumpstart motor control designs. The kit uses a modular SmartFusion2 SoC FPGA daughter card that enables customers to easily partition their motor control solutions for hardware only or hardware/software implementation using the modular motor control IP suite and the ARM Cortex M3 MCU in SmartFusion2. The starter kit is ideal for customers who need scalable multi-axis motor control, and more performance than an MCU/DSP-based kit, with the ability to integrate additional system function on the FPGA to realize lower cost of ownership. The kit provides a flexible design platform for customers to scale motor/motion control solutions across compact, standard and premium AC drives and custom stepper/servo motor applications, says the company. “The modular approach to the SmartFusion2 SoC FPGA dual-axis motor control kit helps to customize the solution for the customer,” said Shakeel Peera, senior director of FPGA/SoC marketing, Microsemi. “Scalability also allows for a different combination of motors. With this design kit, customers can spend less time on qualifying new devices and more time on growing their business.” SmartFusion2 with Microsemi’s motor control IP enables customers to offload CPU/DSP processing to the FPGA for faster parallel processing. The modular IP suite running on the FPGA is able to drive two BLDC/stepper motor channels with the motor controller kit (while the IP can scale to six-axis) or drive motor performance beyond 30,000 RPM. Furthermore, with the International Energy Agency (IEA) estimating that electric motors represent more than 45 percent of all electrical energy consumption, SmartFusion2 SoC FPGAs can lower total device power consumption by more than 50 percent and lowers static power by 10 times over competing SRAM-based FPGAs. The best-in-class security features available in SmartFusion2 also safeguard connected motors against malevolent hackers and intellectual property theft. According to a market research report from The Freedonia Group, the U.S. market for electric motors is forecast to expand 5.4 percent per year through 2018 to $16.2 billion, accelerating from the 2008-2013 period. Electric motors are key components in many durable goods, and as a result, suppliers will benefit from solid gains in heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) equipment; machinery and motor vehicle output, says the company.