DSC has reduced interrupt latency for time-critical control applications
A family of 16-bit digital signal controllers (DSCs) announced by Microchip, the dsPIC33CK, are designed to deliver faster deterministic performance in time-critical control applications.
The DSCs have expanded context selected registers to reduce interrupt latency, explains Microchip, and fast instruction execution to accelerate DSP routines.
With 100MIPS performance, the core of the dsPIC33CK delivers almost double the performance of previous single-core dsPIC DSCs, making them suitable for motor control, digital power as well as automotive sensors and industrial automation applications where sophisticated algorithms are required.
The dsPIC33CK single-core family complements the recently announced dsPIC33CH dual-core family, based on the same core.
It has been designed specifically for controlling multiple sensorless, brushless motors running field-oriented control algorithms and power factor correction.
The family of DSCs is also designed to ease functional safety certification required by automotive, medical and appliance applications where safe operation and shutdown in failure situations are critical. The devices include integrated functional safety features for safety-critical designs such as: RAM built-in self-test (BIST) for checking health and functionality; deadman timer for monitoring the health of application software through periodic timer interrupts within a specified timing window; dual watchdog timers (WDT); flash error correction code (ECC); brown -out reset; power on reset; and failsafe clock monitor.
The dsPIC33CK family features a CAN-FD communication bus to support new automotive communication standards.
Analogue integration includes high-speed ADCs (3.5Msamples per second), analogue comparators with DACs, and operational amplifiers, enable motor-control applications with smaller footprints and lower bill of material costs, claims Microchip. The DSCs include a 250 picosecond resolution pulse width modulation (PWM), suitable for advanced digital power topologies. Live updates of firmware (with up to 2x128kbyte blocks) support high-availability systems, a feature deemed especially important for digital power supplies.
The dsPIC33CK is supported by Microchip’s MPLAB development ecosystem including Microchip’s free, downloadable MPLAB X integrated development environment (IDE), MPLAB Code Configurator, XC16 C compiler tool chain and MPLAB in-circuit debugger/programmer tools.
For design support, Microchip offers the dsPIC33CK Curiosity board (DM330030), (available in November), motor-control plug in modules (PIMs) with internal (MA330041-2) and external (MA330041-1) op amps for use with Microchip’s MCLV-2 and MCHV-2/3 systems. The dsPIC33CK PIM for general-purpose platforms (MA330042), is available for the Explorer 16/32 development board (DM240001-2).
The dsPIC33CK is available in eight package variants which include packages from 28 to 80 pins and as small as 5.0 x 5.0mm. Memory sizes range from 32 to 256kbyte of flash.