Microsemi Corp has announced new advanced motor-control algorithms optimized for its SmartFusion customizable system-on-chip (cSoC), allowing design engineers to realize highly reliable multi-motor control in a single IC, reducing system cost and power. The new algorithms aim at safety-critical applications in industrial, avionics, defense and medical markets. "Many systems require control of multiple motors which results in a dedicated micro-controller for each individual motor," said Paul Ekas, VP marketing for Microsemi's SoC product group. "Implementing these algorithms on SmartFusion devices that combine high-performance hardware acceleration with an easy-to-program ARM Cortex-M3 microcontroller, designers can significantly reduce power and system complexity." Microsemi's award-winning SmartFusion cSoC combines three features crucial for successful implementation of advanced motor control algorithms: an embedded ARM Cortex-M3 microcontroller, a high reliability flash-based FPGA plus an integrated programmable analog circuitry for motor sensing. This extensive system integration reduces overall system complexity and operational cost. The advanced motor-control algorithms address DC brushless, AC brushless, and three-phase motor-control applications. The algorithms are implemented as a combination of extremely fast and efficient hardware subroutines in the FPGA fabric and embedded software on the ARM Cortex-M3. This high-performance architecture yields significant power reduction benefits and performance improvements by offloading the heavy software processing into dedicated hardware. The reduced processing load on the ARM Cortex-M3 provides more processing headroom to perform key system and application layer control task management. The advanced motor control algorithms also include:
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