The world's first on-chip motor drive system with integrated RISC-V core

     The Internet of Things is inextricably linked to sensors. But how it fails to act on the vast amounts of data it acquires will be meaningless. Reliable electric actuators that connect door locks, valves, and heating vents are the behind-the-scenes heroes behind the "T" that delivers real value to iot. Through the ROCINANTE family, TRINAMIC announced the world's first single-chip motor driver circuit with an embedded RISC-V core. As a single-chip iot actuator solution, this new family of products forms the product cornerstone of the physical cloud.

     TRINAMIC announced its new motor drive product family, which integrates the embedded RISC-V core, named 'Rocinante'. The new product combines TRINAMIC's decades of experience in embedded motor motion control with a more open, flexible RISC-V ISA microcontroller. The new family of products can be used to drive control stepper motors, BLDC brushless motors, brushed motors, and even voice coil motors, which are used in large numbers in the fast-growing markets of service robotics, smart homes, office automation, electric vehicles, and power tools.

     The core of any embedded motor control system consists of a microcontroller, an application layer that runs, provides a user interface, or executes a bus protocol. TRINAMIC has long been a leading motor control supplier and is the only dedicated motion control IC designer in Europe. As a total solution provider, TRINAMIC builds on decades of experience to deliver board-level embedded microcontrollers. Single-chip solutions make miniaturized, highly embedded stand-alone devices a reality.

      Actuators, motors, and mechanisms have a longer life than user interfaces or protocols, so the longevity of components is critical for equipment manufacturers. RISC-V is the perfect platform for long life product design. RISC-V ISA is stable, proven, and there are no obligations or licensing agreements that prohibit product design, long-term development, or technology transfer. TRINAMIC chose RISC-V as the foundation for future embedded motion control.

     Michael Randt, CEO and founder of TRINAMIC, explains: "Embedding a powerful processor into a motor controller gives us a new degree of freedom and also enables features that will be essential in the future, such as condition monitoring and predictive maintenance. Some companies excel in analog, and there are many companies that are doing digital ics, or even mixed-signal circuits, that are more challenging and smart. Single-chip mixed-signal smart power ics with embedded processor cores are the pinnacle, offering extreme flexibility and reliability at an attractive cost."

     TRINAMIC is an early member of the RISC-V group. The company has successfully implemented RISC-V cores in early FPGA phases to meet the specific needs of customers looking for reliable, stable, and long-term architectures. TRINAMIC is committed to the idea of an open instruction set. The design is based on self-developed IP as well as IP modules from carefully tested and selected European sources.

     The first product in this product family will be a BLDC/PMSM motor with an integrated 6 gate drive and an open loop stepper or stepper servo motor with 8 gate drives for control. The two components share a rich set of integrated diagnostics and interface features. The entire product family is equipped with a 32-bit RISC-V core, hardware-based space magnetic field vector control, serial communication interface, USB, CAN-FD and gate drives for 2 - or 3-phase motors. An integrated switch modulator enables a chip drive solution.

     The 128k EEPROM-based non-volatile memory and 32k SRAM make it powerful enough to handle both standalone applications and high-level industrial protocols such as CANopen or CANopen-FD.the module is also the first in the world to implement high voltage technology in a single RISC-V, enabling direct drive of n-channel MOSFETs to control BLDC, stepper motors, DC brush motors, and voice coil motors.