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Bi-directional synchronous buck-boost controllers smooth path for industrial power

Tue, Oct 09, 2018

Two bi-directional four-switch synchronous buck-boost controllers from Renesas are believed to be the industry’s only true bi-directional controllers that sense peak current at both ends and provide cycle-by-cycle current limit in both directions while in buck or boost mode.

The ISL81601 and ISL81401 controllers generate point-of-load (PoL) and voltage rail conversions with peak efficiency up to 99 per cent. The ISL81601 has an input range of 4.5 to 60V and produces a 0.8 to 60V output to support most industrial batteries, namely 12, 24, 36 and 48V.

The ISL81401 is a 4.5 to 40V input and 0.8 to 40V output version, and its unidirectional counterpart is the ISL81401A. The controllers are suitable for DC power back-up and battery-powered medical, industrial and telecommunications systems.

According to Renesas, the ISL81601 and ISL81401’s bidirectional peak current sensing capability eliminates complex external circuitry required for charging and discharging a battery to supply power to the loads. A proprietary algorithm provides smooth mode transitions between buck, boost and buck-boost, while reducing low frequency ripple at Vout, ensuring minimal disturbances during line or load transients. The algorithm also ensures predictable ripple voltage under all conditions. Multi-layer overcurrent protection and a precision control algorithm deliver constant current down to 0.1V at Vout for reliable operation. Designers can expand system power by paralleling an unlimited number of controllers, says Renesas. The ISL81601 and ISL81401 operate two switches at a time to minimise power loss and achieve higher efficiency.

“Our new bidirectional buck-boost controllers eliminate extra sensing circuitry and offer customers a robust feature-set that maintains battery health and superior power utilization,” said Philip Chesley, Vice President of Industrial Analog and Power Business Division, Renesas Electronics Corporation. “Leveraging Renesas’ proprietary modulation scheme and algorithms allows the highly integrated ISL81601, ISL81401 and ISL81401A to achieve the high reliability performance required for battery-powered equipment.”

The ISL81601 and ISL81401/A can be combined with a Renesas RL78 microcontroller (MCU), or other MCUs, to program the voltages, battery charge/discharge function, and on-the-fly bidirectional power flow. Designers can also use the PowerCompass tool to help them quickly identify other power supply parts that match their specific system requirements. Multiple power rails can be set up and designers can perform high-level system analysis and generate custom reference design files in minutes.

All three controllers and evaluation boards are available now. The ISL81601 bidirectional 60V synchronous buck-boost controller is available in a 38-lead HTSSOP package and a 32-lead QFN package. The ISL81401 bi-directional and ISL81401A uni-directional synchronous 40V buck-boost controllers are available in 32-lead QFN packages.

http://www.renesas.com

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RZ/A2M microprocessor expands e-AI applications

Mon, Oct 08, 2018

Embedded artificial intelligence (e-AI) incorporates AI into embedded systems by bringing intelligence to endpoints. According to Renesas Electronics, there are approximately 150 companies in more than 10 countries worldwide conducting trials based on e-AI and there are more than 30 e-AI use cases underway. In response, Renesas has developed a RZ/A2M microprocessor (MPU) to expand the use of e-AI solutions to high-end applications. The RZ/A2M MPU delivers 10 times the image processing performance of the earlier RZ/A1, and incorporates Renesas’ dynamically reconfigurable processor (DRP), which achieves real-time image processing at low power consumption, claims Renesas. As a result, applications incorporating embedded devices, such as smart appliances, service robots, and compact industrial machinery, can implement image recognition employing cameras and other AI functions with low power consumption.

Renesas already offers AI that can detect previously invisible faults in real time by minutely analysing oscillation waveforms from motors or machines. To accelerate the adoption of AI in the field, Renesas has developed the RZ/A2M with DRP, which makes possible image-based AI functionality requiring larger volumes of data and more powerful processing performance than achievable with waveform measurement and analysis. Real-time image processing using very little power means that battery-powered devices can perform tasks such as real-time image recognition based on camera input, biometric authentication using fingerprints or iris scans, and high-speed scanning by handheld scanners. According to Renesas, this addresses the issues highlighted by cloud-based approaches, such as the difficulty of achieving real-time performance, assuring privacy, and maintaining security.

The RZ/A2M with DRP has a large capacity on-chip RAM, which eliminates the need for external DRAM. It supports the MIPI camera interface, popular in mobile devices, and is equipped with a DRP for high-speed image processing. Two-channel Ethernet support boosts network functionality, while an on-chip hardware encryption accelerator enhances secure functionality, says Renesas.

Samples of the RZ/A2M with DRP are available now. The RZ/A2M MPUs are offered with a development board, reference software, and DRP image-processing library. Mass production is scheduled to start in the first quarter of 2019.

http://www.renesas.com

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Intel leverages Stratix FPGAs to accelerate data centre computing

Wed, Sep 26, 2018

Intel has added the Intel Programmable Acceleration Card (PAC) with its most powerful FPGA, the Intel Stratix 10 SX FPGA. The high-bandwidth card leverages the Acceleration Stack for Intel Xeon CPU with FPGAs, allowing data centre developers to deploy FPGA-based accelerated workloads.

Following on from the earlier Intel PAC with Intel Arria 10 FPGA, the Intel PAC with Stratix 10 SX FPGA supports an ecosystem of design partners that delivers IP to accelerate a range of application workloads.

The Intel PAC with Stratix 10 SX FPGA is a larger form factor card built for inline processing and memory-intensive workloads, like streaming analytics and video transcoding. (The smaller form factor Intel PAC with Arria 10 FPGA is designed for back testing, data base acceleration and image processing workloads.)

It has been developed in response to increasing demands for big data and artificial intelligence (AI) increase, necessitating the reprogrammable technology of the FPGA to meet the processing requirements and changing workloads of data centre applications. The FPGA’s reconfigurable logic, memory and DSP blocks, mean that it can be programmed to execute any type of function with high throughput and real-time performance, making them, claims Intel, ideal for many critical enterprise and cloud applications.

The acceleration stack for Intel Xeon CPU with Intel FPGAs works with industry-leading OS, virtualisation and orchestration software partners, providing a common interface for software developers to get simplified management and access to a growing ecosystem of acceleration workloads.

The Intel PAC with Stratix 10 SX FPGA includes a production-grade FPGA interface manager (FIM) to which Intel and partner AFUs are connected. There is also an acceleration stack for Intel Xeon CPU with FPGAs, including a common set of application programming interfaces (APIs) and open-source drivers and support for native, network-attached workloads. Initial partners include Adaptive Microware and Megh Computing.

It was announced that Hewlett Packard Enterprise will be the first OEM to incorporate the Intel PAC with Stratix 10 SX FPGA along with the Intel Acceleration Stack for Intel Xeon Scalable processor with FPGAs into its server offering.

http://www.intel.com

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Renesas Synergy delivers dev kit to speed LTE IoT connectivity

Wed, Sep 26, 2018

Hardware and software make up the Renesas Synergy AE-Cloud2 kit, which allows embedded developers to quickly evaluate cellular connectivity options and build low power wide area (LPWA) cellular internet of things (IoT) applications.

According to Renesas, the AE-Cloud2 kit, used with the new Synergy Software Package (SSP) version 1.5.0 simplifies connecting IoT sensor devices to enterprise cloud services using 4G/LTE Cat-M1 and Cat-NB1, also called NB-IoT, with backwards compatability to 2G/EGPRS cellular networks. The kit’s functionality is claimed to accelerate prototyping cellular-enabled IoT devices for asset tracking, retail and agriculture monitoring, smart cities/utilities, mobile healthcare, and industrial automation.

Each AE-Cloud2 hardware kit includes a Synergy S5D9 microcontroller baseboard, tri-mode cellular modem with cellular and GPS antennae, Wi-Fi, Ethernet, and a variety of sensors such as lighting, microphone, temperature, humidity, pressure, air quality, geomagnetic, accelerometer, and gyroscope.

For cellular access, developers insert a SIM card with a data plan purchased from a local cellular carrier. The hardware kit’s software allows developers to provision the kit to connect to a 4G/LTE IoT cellular network and their preferred cloud service provider. Users can visualise their sensor data on a customisable, password-protected dashboard.

The AE-Cloud2 hardware kit has passed global RF emissions tests for EMC performance. The kit also complies with global regulatory certifications for FCC, CE, RoHs, WEEE and Japan MIC. The optimised hardware/software saves developers months of design time and resources, says Renesas, as it allows them to create a scalable, energy efficient and secure end-to-end LPWA cellular IoT application that can be used anywhere in the world.

Renesas is demonstrating the AE-Cloud2 kit at Arm TechCon (17 and 18 October, 2018, San Jose Convention Center, booth 727).

The AE-Cloud2 kit is available now from Renesas Electronics’ distributors around the world. The SSP version 1.5.0 can be downloaded, free of charge, from the company website.

http://renesassynergy.com/ae-cloud2

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Bi-directional synchronous buck-boost controllers smooth path for industrial power

RZ/A2M microprocessor expands e-AI applications

Intel leverages Stratix FPGAs to accelerate data centre computing

Renesas Synergy delivers dev kit to speed LTE IoT connectivity

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