Femtocore: An Application Specific Processor for Vertically Integrated High Performance Real-Time Controls

Savi, Filippo; Harikumaran, Jayakrishnan; Barater, Davide; Buticchi, Giampaolo; Gerada, Chris; Wheeler, Pat

Abstract

In applications that require a high availability and high performance (for example aerospace),modular power electronics and multi-phase machines represent an advantageous choice. In this framework, a control system able to handle a high number of PWM signals and communication interfaces as well as featuring a high computational power is required. This paper proposes a novel HDL plus soft-core approach to be implemented on System-on-Chip hardware which allows for the efficient and modular implementation of the modern control techniques with strong guarantees in terms of determinism. The proposal lies in the adoption of a very simplified and optimized floating-point soft-core, the femtocore (fCore) and its tool-chain, which allows C-like implementation of complex algorithms in a HDL-design power electronics control framework. Several fCore units can be arranged for parallel processing to handle the time requirements of a complex modular system even with low sampling time (100 kHz or more). The proposed architecture is experimentally validated in a proof-of-concept, six-phase electric machine including a comparison against a traditional method.

Citation

Savi, F., Harikumaran, J., Barater, D., Buticchi, G., Gerada, C., & Wheeler, P. (2021). Femtocore: An Application Specific Processor for Vertically Integrated High Performance Real-Time Controls. IEEE Open Journal of the Industrial Electronics Society, 2, 479-488. https://doi.org/10.1109/OJIES.2021.3112124

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Sep 9, 2021
• Online Publication Date: Sep 14, 2021
• Publication Date: Sep 14, 2021
• Deposit Date: May 13, 2022
• Publicly Available Date: May 13, 2022
• Journal: IEEE Open Journal of the Industrial Electronics Society
• Print ISSN: 2644-1284
• Electronic ISSN: 2644-1284
• Publisher: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 2
• Pages: 479-488
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/OJIES.2021.3112124
• Keywords: Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law; Geography, Planning and Development
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/7352896
• Publisher URL: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9537621