XMOS has announced its latest xCORE-Analogue (A16) sliceKIT development board, as well as the volume production of its xCORE-Analogue multicore microcontroller products. This latest release is a combination of the company’s xCORE multicore, deterministic architecture with analogue and digital interfaces that is claimed to reduce the need for external components in products requiring analogue functions and deterministic computing capability. This presents an easy route for the evaluation of the company’s xCORE-Analog for use in industrial applications such as condition monitoring, smart interfaces, actuators, PLCs and motor controllers.
This range of 6, 8, 10, 12 and 16-core multicore microcontrollers are claimed to be optimised specifically for industrial product development. They are equipped with an integrated analog-to-digital converter, power management circuitry and a range of timers.
The xCORE-Analog sliceKIT consists of a core board, (featuring the 16-core XS1-A16-FB217-C10 xCORE-Analog multicore microcontroller), an Ethernet sliceCARD, a Mixed Signal sliceCARD, a debug adapter, power supply and all required cabling. Designers can start developing quickly and easily using the xTIMEcomposer Studio toolset, a complete, free-to-download C-based design environment that is timing-aware.
The kit is compatible with a broad range of I/O sliceCARDs from XMOS and third parties, including GPIO, CAN/LIN/RS485, LCD, WiFi, and SDRAM, allowing it to interface with hundreds of different types of sensors, output devices and actuators. XMOS provides several demo apps to get developers started. These include a data logging app that monitors the status of three inputs (a temperature sensor, joystick-position and a pushbutton), and a feedback loop that shows how to convert a signal from analog to digital and then back to analogue for output.
The range of industrial solutions that can be created with xCORE-Analog is huge,” commented Paul Neil, VP Product Management, XMOS. “The quickest route to understanding what you can do with xCORE is simply to try it.
Developers used to working with traditional MCUs and FPGAs can get their designs up and running much more rapidly with xCORE, thanks to our flexible, configurable device architecture and xTIMEcomposer integrated design environment.”
The company offers an extensive and growing library of free, dedicated industrial product IP to support developers in creating industrial solutions based on xCORE-Analog. These include Industrial Fieldbus functionality, image processing and motor control, as well as real-time Ethernet, USB and human-machine interface (HMI) functions.
xCORE-Analog devices include up to eight channels of 12-bit, 1 MSPS analog-to-digital conversion; power-on reset, brown-out protection and watchdog facilities; integrated oscillator; deep sleep memory; and integrated DC/DC converter. These features combine to reduce the number of external components required and to allow designs to be implemented using simple two-layer printed circuit boards. The devices’ power management features enable low sleep-mode power consumption of 100µA.
XMOS
