Low power device eliminates need for an external profibus, asic or fpga
1 min read
Texas Instruments has unveiled a new microprocessor (mpu) which it claims can reduce power consumption and cost by up to 30% for industrial applications. The AM1810 Sitara ARM mpu is a single chip ARM9 solution with an integrated process field bus (profibus) interface, widely used for communications between factory automation equipment.
According to TI, the device eliminates the need for an external profibus, asic or fpga and has performance to support implementation of industrial applications, whether or not the applications require a profibus. It has been designed for industrial applications such as a programmable logic controller or human machine interface.
The AM1810 Sitara ARM mpu connects the profibus interface directly to the RS-485 transceiver, eliminating the need for an asic or fpga and reducing BOMs.
The profibus real time frame handler, called the Fieldbus Data Link (FDL), is implemented utilising the programmable real time unit (pru), which is part of the mpu's on chip peripherals. Because the pru is tightly coupled with the ARM processor through the on chip system bus, TI claims it can yield shorter control cycle time and increased system response time – running up to 12MBaud profibus decentralised peripherals (dp) communication.
Multiple memory options allow users to run a profibus node without external memory, booting through serial flash and running profibus on internal RAM. The solution also has an operating system abstraction layer, which makes the dp protocol stack independent of the operating system.
Ram Sathappan, TI's industrial end equipments manage, said: "Our aim is to help our customers reduce BOM costs, pcb space and design time. We are confident that TI's one chip solution … will do just that."
