The reference platform for FPGA Based Motion Control

MotionFire is the next step of application specific development platforms engineered by Arrow Europe in cooperation with external partners providing their knowledge, IP and design services to deliver a complete solution for motion control and industrial communication based on Altera FPGAs.

The goal of the FireFighter project was to develop a low voltage and versatile platform to evaluate the benefits of using FPGA based solutions in motor control applications.

The system layout consists of two parts, the logic module “FireFighter” acts as the baseboard of the system handling all industrial communication interfaces and motor control algorithms. This baseboard is supplemented with different motor drive modules called “FireDriver” enhancing the baseboard with various types of motor specific drive logic, power stages and sensor feedback circuits.

Core of the FireFighter module is a Cyclone® III EP3C40F484- C8N FPGA delivering the registered logic (LEs), embedded memory (ESB) and hardware multipliers to enable complex motor control algorithms as well as sophisticated communication interfaces.

Besides the basic embedded processing infrastructure (external Flash and DDR2) the FireFighter board is equipped with different industry standard tranceivers like dual CAN, dual RS-232 or RS-485 UART as well as two 10/100Mbit ethernet PHY’s.

Moreover, FireFighter delivers a managed 10/100Mbit ethernet switch that can be used instead of the PHY <= FPGA IP MAC implementation whenever appropriate.

Additional flexibility is provided by an MAX® II CPLD interfacing between the FPGA and the two possible ethernet variants as well as a external processor interface delivered from an external connector. The output of the 2 possible ethernet variants is multiplexed by an “housekeeping” μController taking care of all board level tasks.

To allow custom specific enhancements to this board up to 43 user configurable I/Os are available via two external connectors.

Industrial communication cores like CAN, UARTs and Ethernet MACs are available from different sources. Arrow is currently setting up additional cooperations around the MotionFire platform especially in the domain of real time ethernet IP cores and software stacks to be able to deliver a complete package of industrial communication solutions to the user.

Arrow is partnered with Unjo (www.unjo.com) in the field of motion control IP cores. Unjo is a well known and experienced provider of motion control solutions including FPGA IP cores, motion control hardware and design services.

> Current, speed and torque regulators
> Trajectory generators
> Output stages
– Stepper motors
– Brushed and brushless DC motors
– Space vector sinusoidal
> Sensors Interfaces
– Incremental encoder
– Netzer rotary and linear absolute Encoder
– Speed estimation from incremental pulses
> External function interfaces
– A/D converters
– Linear CCD arrays
> CRC calculation
> Various fixed point arithmetic modules

Each FireFighter board can handle up to 6 different Fire- Driver motion control boards in parallel. All necessary I/Os are directly accessible by the FPGA to evaluate different types of motor control concepts and motion control IP Cores.

FireDriver boards for common motor concepts are currently specified and developed in cooperation with UNJO. Details about specific Fire- Driver boards, their features and components will be available upon request.

The MotionFire platform will be launched early 2008. Pricing for the system components will become public when the system calculation has been finalized.

For detailed specifications please contact your local Sasco Holz Branch Office.

© Sasco Holz 2008