Automation Possibilities Using System-on-Chip FPGAs

Feb. 12, 2013
EDITOR’S NOTE: Suhel Dhanani will be presenting at The Automation Conference on May 14-15, 2013. To hear Mr. Suhel's presentation and many others focusing on improving production efficiency with automation, register here: www.theautomationconference.com.

Suhel Dhanani of Altera (www.altera.com) cites three examples of potential new system designs that are now possible with the wide availability of system-on-chip FPGAs.

One example is a drive on a chip that integrates the drive control loop with communication functions, custom interfaces for encoders, analog-to-digital converters and, potentially, even IGBTs.

Another possibility involves embedding a programmable industrial Ethernet function within the system-on-chip to accommodate any protocol. This removes the need to add a special communications board and a special communications ASIC.

A third option is to enable localizedcontrollers in areas where latency iscritical. Here, system-on-chip FPGAs playa role in partnership with the main PLCcontrol processor, such as an Intelmicroprocessor unit.

>> Read Automation World's complete embedded coverage: How Embedded Systems are Changing Automation

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