Texas Instruments has introduced the newest member of the C2000TM family of MCUs, the C2000F2838x 32-bit microcontroller. With the C2000F2838x, designers can connect AC servo drives to other industrial systems on a single chip, including EtherCAT, Ethernet and Controller Area Network (CAN FD) with flexible data rate.

Systems with communication interfaces typically require an external application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) or dedicated host control microprocessor, but this reduces the flexibility of the design architecture, adds complexity, and takes up space on the board. TI's C2000F2838x microcontrollers do not rely on external ASICs, reducing the overall solution size and reducing the components used.

The F2838x microcontroller integrates three industrial communication protocols, enabling designers to customize a microcontroller to meet the specific needs of each system. A key component required to achieve this is a new connection manager based on the Arm® Cortex®-M4 subsystem, which reduces some of the processing-intensive communications and optimizes connectivity. In addition to these features, the C2000F2838x microcontroller offers enhanced real-time control performance and greater flexibility than previous generation C2000 series microcontrollers.

Key features and advantages

Combining EtherCAT, Ethernet and CAN FD: In the electrical isolation architecture, the new microcontroller features a fast serial interface with eight receive channels for inter-chip communication at speeds up to 200 Mbps with minimal pins. Designers can take advantage of this highly integrated feature in CAN FD designs to quickly increase the number of CAN FD ports available by pairing the F2838x with the TI System Basis Chip (SBC), such as TCAN4550 SBC with integrated CAN FD controller and transceiver.

Flexible integration of sensing technology for improved real-time control: The C2000F2838x family integrates a single-ended 16-bit analog-to-digital converter that doubles the number of available channels compared to previous generation C2000 microcontrollers, minimizing external components and systems delay and maximize control loop accuracy.

For more information on this range of products, please refer to TI's website:http://www.ti.com/microcontrollers/c2000-real-time-control-mcus/overview.html