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Analog aims DSPs at embedded control tasks

 

Analog Devices has introduced a new series of Blackfin DSPs, numbered BF50x, under the slogan of “making embedded signal processing easy”: it intends the new parts for industrial applications such as motor and power control. They are 400-MHz parts that come with 12-bit SAR ADCs (analogue-to-digital converters), and with up to 4 Mbytes of flash memory. To reduce the cost of entry to begin development with the chips, ADI has added a basic development kit at $199, and a JTAG-based emulator at $150.

According to ADI’s Anders Frederiksen, marketing manager for motor control, the new chips represent the latest steps in a continuing process that matches the features of DSP chips to the needs of specifi c market segments; as well as motor control, he alludes to emerging product areas such as smart metering.

In fact, and to give the sector the full 12-bit ADC precision that it demands along with the fl ash memory—a technology that ADI does not develop in-house—the new Blackfi ns are not monolithic chips but multi-chip modules that match ADI’s DSP core, and one of its ADCs, with the memory die. Costs are, Frederiksen says, “close to” monolithic levels.

Frederiksen says that to broaden the market appeal of the DSPs, the BF50x family and its support tools focus on ease of use, and ADI has priced them at a level between a conventional mid-range microcontroller and a low-end “classical” DSP—in the range $4.50 to $10.60 in volume.

The ADC delivers 11.5 ENOB (effective number of bits) for use in power inverters, UPSs (uninterruptible power supplies), servo controls and motor controls. The chips are also lowpower, in both active and standby states; at 400 MHz they are in the 0.25W region. Additionally, the Blackfi n BF50x series introduces a new peripheral to the Blackfi n portfolio—the ADC Control Module (ACM)— which provides a low-overhead, precise means to synchronise ADC sampling with external events. Why would you use the Blackfi n rather than an MCU? Frederiksen cites applications that demand a combination of real-time performance and precision, where improved accuracy yields results in areas such as effi cient control of power.

The series, ADI asserts, delivers approximately twice the DSP processing power compared other similarly priced processors. Under the Berkeley Design Technology (BDTI) DSP Kernel Benchmark, the BF504 obtained a BDTIsimMark2000/$ score of 498, based on a BDTIsimMark2000 of 2240 and a cost of $4.50. EZ-KIT Lite evaluation kits ($199) include an evaluation suite of ADI’s VisualDSP++ development environment.

The BF504 does not have the fl ash memory and is the $4.50-price-point device; the 504F adds the flash memory and costs $6.50; the higherperforming 506F—with the fl ash—represents the upper end of the price range.

Analog Devices, www.analog.com.