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Altera, Arrow, National Semiconductor Roll out Motor Control Platform
FPGAs simplify process of linking fieldbuses and Ethernet
Charles J. Murray, Senior Technical Editor -- Design News, February 10, 2009
National Semiconductor, Altera Corp. and Arrow Electronics have teamed up to deliver an FPGA-based motor control development platform that simplifies the process of supporting several different communication protocols.
Known as MotionFire, the new motor control platform could be a boon for developers who want to control motors from inside and outside the factory, mixing Industrial Ethernet with various fieldbuses. The three companies say they are targeting the platform at a variety of industrial, automotive, medical, instrumentation and consumer electronics applications.
"With FPGA technology, users can re-program everything on a single platform to support multiple protocols," says Jason Chiang, senior technical marketing manager for Altera Corp., which supplies the FPGA (field-programmable gate array) technology for the platform. "That way, they don't need to re-spin a custom board for each solution they deploy."
The three companies say the key to the new platform is Altera's Cyclone III FPGA technology, which is programmed to support and bridge multiple industrial networking protocols. Cyclone III is part of the MotionFire platform, which includes the FireFighter FPGA-based communication baseboard and the FireDriver motor driver power modules. The platform can be used to control various motor types, including stepper, servo, AC and DC motors. The platform connects up to 12 motors, providing such network communication options as Ethernet/IP, EtherCAT, Profinet, SERCOS III, CAN, USB and RS485.
Expertise for the new development platform came from all three companies, with National Semiconductor providing power management components, Arrow doing the board design and manufacturing and Altera supplying FPGAs and embedded processors.
Engineers from the three companies hope the new technology will simplify the process of connecting various factory floor fieldbuses to outside networks. "More and more, our customers are telling us that they not only need to upgrade and maintain multiple motion control platforms, but also that they need to integrate those into a network environment, so that they can manage systems remotely," Chiang says. "With FPGAs, they can put everything on a single board. And they can support both the industrial connectivity and the motor interfaces that they need."
FireFighter FPGA-based communication baseboard enables Industrial Ethernet and fieldbus communications.
