Date: 29/04/2012

TI releases 32 bit microcontrollers for motor control applications

Texas Instruments has released Piccolo microcontrollers TMS320F2803x and TMS320F2806x for motor control applications. These microcontrollers now contain a C-programmable, integrated control law accelerator (CLA) co-processor via a new C-compiler for better designs.

The CLA is a 32 bit floating point math accelerator that works independently of the TMS320C28x CPU core. The CLA provides direct access to on-chip peripherals for parallel execution of algorithms to accelerate system response time and improve efficiency.

Features of F2803x and F2806x microcontroller:
1. C-programmable, 32-bit floating point co-processor via a new C compiler for the CLA
2. Incorporate TI's pulse width modulators (ePWMs @ 150ps resolution), 12-bit analog-to-digital converter and two 10 MHz oscillators on chip
3. Incorporate a Viterbi, complex math and CRC unit (VCU), providing 75 tailored math instructions to accelerate processing of communications algorithms
4. Included USB 2.0, CAN, PWMs, a 16 channel, 3 MSPS 12-bit ADCs and three analog comparators with 10-bit reference
5. Code compatibility across the C2000 microcontroller platform
6. Includes controlSUITE software for open source demonstration GUIs, software examples and documentation for motor control development and digital power

The price of F2803x microcontroller is around $3 in 1k volumes, F2806x microcontroller is $4.95 in 1k volumes.