India has a key role in the global technological innovation and adoption. It has already created a strong place for itself in semiconductor design. Indian engineers are likewise among the best in the world. However, to keep the momentum going, all semiconductor companies in India should play a strong role in promoting and encouraging the growth of the Indian chip industry. They can do this by collaborating with academia on research and by encouraging government to make India an easy and attractive place to invest.
This article will discuss two designs where Texas Instruments (TI) India design engineers have contributed significantly as part of the worldwide effort to develop and launch differentiated products to address a diverse range of applications.
PICCOLO MICROCONTROLLERSTI’s C2000 MCUs have done a great job providing real-time control with up to 150MIPS fixed point/600MFLOPS floating point performance. They are mainly targeted at high-end industrial control applications, wherein real time control is a critical factor. At the same time, there were a broader range of applications wherein customers require an optimum solution of performance, price and package size. The new Piccolo devices help meet this need.
There are a number of needs both from OEMs and end-customers that help us understand what products would best suit today’s changing market. These include better efficiency, real-time control, enhanced features, increased processing power, competitive pricing, lower system cost, sleek form factor, and small package size.
The new series of microcontrollers from TI offers processor intensive, real-time control to cost-sensitive applications. The Piccolo F2802x/F2803x feature architectural advancements and enhanced peripherals in package sizes starting at 38-pins to bring the benefits of 32-bit real-time control to applications typically unable to justify the associated cost. Real-time control offers greater system efficiency and precision through the implementation of advanced algorithms for industrial (telecom/server rectifier; UPS, frequency inverters; AC and DC drives; fan, blower, compressor, pump; power line communications), consumer (AC/DC rectifier, power supply; LED backlighting; capacitive touch screen, electric toys), lighting (LED street and building lighting, panel backlighting, automotive), appliance (air conditioners, washing machines, induction cooking, fridge compressors) and automotive (electric power steering, battery management in hybrid/electric automotive solutions).
The Piccolo F2802x/F2803x devices offers speed performance of up to 60MHz,
integrating up to 128kB of flash memory, high speed 12-bit ADC, high-resolution ePWMs, and other modules such as high-precision on-chip oscillators, communication interfaces, analog comparators, and general purpose I/O. This microcontroller family features an embedded programmable CLA (Control Law Accelerator). Working in parallel with the C28x-CPU, the CLA can execute complex high speed control algorithms independently, thereby freeing the CPU to handle communication and diagnostic tasks. This results in an overall faster system response and up to a 5x performance increase for common closed-loop applications.
At 4.6MSPS, Piccolo devices’ on-chip, 12-bit ADC is up to four times faster than the closest competitor, allowing designers to reduce the complexity and cost of the design process, while achieving excellent accuracy and performance. Two on-chip oscillators operating at 10MHz each with eliminate the need for external oscillators and their associated cost. Many microcontrollers, in comparison, integrate ring oscillators, which have drift as high as 50 percent, rendering them unsuitable for reliable communication interface clocking. Piccolo oscillators also offer triple redundancy with on-chip self-test features to help designers achieve system-level safety certifications such as the IEC 60730 safety standard required for white goods in Europe. The simple power architecture eliminates the need for external power ICs and uses a single 3.3V supply with internal regulator down to 1.9V while providing brown-out protection and power-on reset.
OMAP TECHNOLOGYThe mobile phone continues to revolutionize our daily lives. With the integration of new features, the ordinary phone is evolving into smart phones and mobile Internet devices (MIDs) that are rich in multimedia features. Consumers are accustomed to experiencing high-quality video and full-page Web browsing at home. Handset manufactures are trying to provide the same content experience on handsets, taking advantage of the network bandwidth to deliver an optimized mobile web browsing experience.
TI’s OMAP35x processors enable new applications at handheld power levels. The OMAP platform, based on the ARM Cortex-A8 core, provides an unprecedented combination of laptop-like performance at handheld power levels in a single chip. With more than four times the processing power of today’s 300MHz ARM9 devices, the superscalar Cortex-A8 core is integrated into four new OMAP35x applications processors. These processors offer a variety of combinations of the Cortex-A8 core, multimedia- rich peripherals, OpenGL ES 2.0 compatible graphics engine, video accelerators and TMS320C64x+ DSP core.
The first device in TI's OMAP 3 architecture, the OMAP3430 multimedia applications processor, delivers up to three times gain in performance over ARM11-based processors, enabling laptop-like productivity and advanced entertainment in 3G handsets. The industry's first application processor to be designed in a 65nm CMOS process, the OMAP3430 operates at a higher frequency than previous generation OMAP processors while lowering the core voltage and adding power reduction features.
TI is enabling sophisticated and dynamic images with “smart pixel” technology offered via OpenGL ES 2.0. This unique technology allows each pixel in an image to be programmed individually, giving developers the power to create rich effects with cinematic realism. Users will now experience "life-like" facial features, advanced reflection effects and multi-textured backgrounds in the mobile environment.
The OMAP3440 processor offers increased performance and advanced multimedia benefits targeting applications that require high performance, such as the MID market. It also brings full HD camcorder functionality to mobile devices, giving users the ability to record HD video, as well as enjoy new applications enabled by the large displays in the latest smartphones and MIDs. The OMAP3440 leverages TI’s IVA 2+ multimedia accelerator to support 720p HD video record and playback. Additionally, at the heart of the OMAP3440 is a superscalar ARM Cortex-A8 that provides 800MHz of performance to enhance applications that take advantage of the larger displays used in MIDs
Some of the challenges that the team overcame include multiple power and voltage domains; Dynamic Voltage and Frequency Scaling (DVFS), and Dynamic Power Switching (DPS) implementation; the 130 million transistors; mixed signal circuits for TV, display and control their interference; and the asynchronous speed interface across processor interfaces.
Author InformationRamesh Ramamritham is the General Manager for the Advanced Embedded Control Design in Texas Instruments India.
Subash Chandar G is the Director at the Hardware Development Group and Digital Signal Processing Systems Design in Texas Instruments India.
