•  
• EDN Europe MAGAZINE
•  
• Free SUBSCRIPTION
• Subscription Renewal
• View Media Kit

• EDN
• EDN Australia
• EDN Asia
• EDN China
• EDN Japan

ARM MPU features integrated Profibus interface

Texas Instruments has announced its AM1810 Sitara ARM MPU (microprocessor), a new single-chip ARM9 solution with an integrated Profibus interface, a fieldbus used for communications between factory automation equipment. This integrated, low-power device eliminates the need for an external Profibus, ASIC or FPGA, which saves development time and cost while improving system performance. The MPU has ample performance to support implementation of industrial applications, whether or not the applications require a Profibus. Examples of industrial applications suitable for the MPU include a programmable logic controller or human machine interface. The company also announced its membership into the PI (Profibus International). The MPU connects the Profibus interface directly to the RS-485 transceiver, eliminating the need for an ASIC or FPGA. Customers can also design smaller enclosures and housings with easier thermal designs for their Profibus-based products due to the MPU’s low power architecture. The combination of removing the FPGA or the ASIC, reducing board space and introducing a simpler thermal design, results in bill of materials savings.

The Profibus real-time frame handler, called the Fieldbus Data Link, is implemented utilising the PRU (programmable real-time unit), which is part of the MPU on-chip peripherals. The PRU is tightly coupled with the ARM processor through the on-chip system bus, yielding shorter control cycle time and increased system response time – running up to 12Mbaud Profibus decentralised peripherals communication. Multiple memory options allow customers 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 Profibus DP protocol stack independent of the operating system, allowing complete design flexibility. The Profibus DP slave implementation earned the PI certification through ComDeC, a Profibus Certification Lab hosted by Siemens AG. This particular certification was earned on the Profibus interface on the new MPU. The MPU supports EtherCAT Master protocol on the integrated Ethernet port. This allows industrial designers to develop products with multi-protocol support.