Texas Instruments Sitara AM574x processor

     Sitara AM574x processor from Texas Instruments. These Arm® Cortex-based devices have high processing power and are designed to meet the high-intensity processing needs of a variety of modern embedded applications, including industrial communications, human machine interfaces (HMI), and automation and control.

     The TI Sitara AM574x processor uses a dual-core Arm Cortex-A15 Reduced Instruction set computer (RISC) CPU with Arm Neon extensions and two TI C66x floating point DSP cores, Contains two dual-core programmable real-time units and Industrial Communication Subsystem (PRU-ICSS) for various industrial Ethernet protocols such as Profinet, EtherCAT, Ethernet/IP, etc., and also fuses programmable video processing capabilities with a highly integrated set of peripherals. Up to two embedded vision engines (EVE) are available with cryptographic acceleration.

     The device integrates a powerful image and video acceleration - High Definition (IVA-HD) subsystem that supports 4K video at 15fps frame rate, encoding and decoding of H.264 codecs, 2D graphics acceleration, and dual-core 3D Gpus. It also comes with dual-port Gigabit Ethernet, a universal memory controller, Enhanced Direct Memory Access (EDMA) controller, 16 32-bit universal timers, and a 32-bit MPU watchdog timer.

     The Sitara AM574x processor is supported by the TMDSIDK574 Industrial Development Kit (IDK). The suite is an independent test, development and evaluation module that enables developers to write software and develop hardware for industrial control and industrial communication applications. The kit has six Ethernet ports, four of which can be used simultaneously, namely two Gigabit Ethernet ports and two 10/100 Ethernet ports provided by the PRU-ICSS subsystem.

     The TMDXIDK574 IDK also includes connectors for Mini PCIe, USB 3.0, and HDMI, and supports an optional TMDXIDK57X-LCD touchscreen display. The suite provides a defined set of features that enable developers to experience industrial communication scenarios through a variety of serial - or Ethernet-based interfaces. With a standard interface, the kit can connect to other processors or systems and act as a communications gateway or controller. In addition, the kit can be used directly as a standard remote I/O system or as a sensor connected to industrial communication networks.