This document describes the Vortex86EX system on a chip from DMP Electronics, which integrates an x86 CPU with motion control interfaces. It is intended for use in applications like motor controllers and robots. The SoC includes modules to support servo control, encoders, pulse width modulation for motors, and hall sensors. Software support is planned for operating systems like DOS, Windows, and Linux. A hardware abstraction layer and motion/motor control library will provide a unified interface. Reference designs and development tools are also planned to help customers develop motion control systems using the Vortex86EX.

1. DM&P Vortex86EX
in
Motion Control
DMP Electronics Inc.

2. The Vortex86 SoC Family
I/O
I/O
2
North
Bridge
K/B
South
Bridge
size
cost
CP
U
Shrinking the entire motherboard
into a tiny chip
x86 isn’t just a PC
x86 as a MCU, x86 as a DSP, …

3. The Vortex86 SoC Family
• Jul. 1998
• 40MHz
• 0.50 um
• Feb. 2007
• 300MHz
• 0.13 um
• Aug. 2008
• 800MHz
• 90 nm
(2007 EOL)
• Jun. 2009
• 1GHz
• 90nm
• GPU
• Jun. 2010
• 1GHz
• 90nm
• GPU
DMP Design x86 SoC since 1995
• Q1
2012
• 1GHz
• 90nm
• GPU
• Motor/Motion Ctrl.
• 2013
• 300~500MHz
• 90nm
• MCU
• Motor/Motion Ctrl.
Guaranteed 10 Years Long Term Supply

4. Vortex86 SoC Roadmap
Target Applications
HMI /
Motion Control
DX3
DX2
Embedded /
Thin Client /
HMI
MX/MX+
Embedded
Controller
DX
SX
Microprocessor
(uP)
CPU Clock Speed
EX
300MHz
500MHz
800MHz
1GHz
1.5GHz
40nm

5. Key Benefits of Vortex86 SoC
 x86 Instruction Set Compatible
 Highly Integrated
 Simplified system design
 Low system BOM cost
 Low Power Consumption
 Fan-less design
 Long Term Supply

6. The Vortex86EX SoC
The 1st MCU-like x86 SoC !!!
LAN
RS232/RS48
5
USB
Vortex86EX
DRAM
(DDR III)
CPU
NB
SB
FPU
Motion/Motor Control
CAN
Servo
Encoder
Audio
SATA
PCI-E/ISA

7. Key Specifications of Vortex86EX
CPU
300MHz / 400 MHz / 500 MHz
x86 Compatible, Support FPU
DRAM
300MHz DDR3 DRAM (up to 2GB)
Cache
- L1: 16K I-Cache, 16K D-Cache
- L2: 4-way 128KB L2 Cache
Bus
- PCI-E (×1) Master/Target Slot
- 16-bit X-ISA (8.3MHz / 16.6MHz / 33MHz)

8. Key Specifications of Vortex86EX
Mass Storage
- SD Card
- SATA-I
Audio
High Definition Audio
LAN
Ethernet 10/100Mbps
USB
USB Host 2.0 × 2 Ports
USB Device 1.1 × 1 Port

9. Key Specifications of Vortex86EX
I/O Interface
- UART x 10 Ports
- SPI × 1 Port
- I2C × 1 Port
- CAN Bus × 1 Port
- GPIO × 80 Pins
- Parallel Port (SPP/EPP/ECP) × 1
- PS2 Keyboard/Mouse
Motion/MotorControl
Interface
4 Motion-Control Modules, to support
- Pulse/DIR, CW/CCW, Pulse A/B output
- Edge-/Center-aligned PWM output
- Quadrature Encoder Interface
- SSI Absolute Encoder Interface
- Hall Sensor Interface

10. Supported Operating Systems

11. Design Goals of Vortex86EX
 Low Power Consumption
 Low Cost
 Higher Integration
 CPU + FPU + NB + SB + I/O in a single chip
 Richer I/O
 10 UART ports, Motion/Motor-control interface, …
 Cross bar for arbitrary I/O routing

12. Flexible I/O Cross Bar

13. Motion-Control Modules
of
Vortex86EX

14. Motion-Control Modules (MCMs)
Integrate a total of 4 motion-control modules (MCMs) in South
Bridge to support at max. 24 pins for motion/motor control
Motion-Control
Module 0
x86
core
PCI
servo
Motion-Control
Module 1
motor
Motion-Control
Module 3
South Bridge
Vortex86EX
encoder

15. Motion-Control Modules (MCMs)
Make Fully PC-Based
Platform Possible
PC-Based
Servo Driver
Machine,
AC
Motor
PC-Based
PC-Based
HMI/Host Controller Motion-Control Card
Encoder,
Home/Limit Switch

16. Vortex86EX as an
Open Motion-Control Platform
 Reduce System Cost
 x86 core & motion-control interface in a single chip
 Easy to Support Mainstream Field-Bus
 EtherCAT, MECHATROLINK, CANopen, …
 Open PC-Based Architecture
 Wide range of development resources
 Ease of migration, integration, and maintenance

17. Intended Applications
2
Motor Controller
Motion Controller
Robot
PAC/PLC
AOI Machine
CNC Machine
Rubber Machine

18. Feature Overview of MCMs
 4 Modes for Motion Control
Mode
Application
Servo mode
Stepping motors,
AC servo drivers
Encoder mode
Incremental encoders
SSI mode
SSI absolute encoders
Capture mode
Tachometers,
Home/limit switches

19. Feature Overview of MCMs
 2 Modes for Motor Control
Mode
Application
PWM mode
DC motors,
Brushless DC (BLDC) motors,
PMSM motors,
AC Induction motors
Hall sensor mode
Hall sensors in BLDC

20. Feature Overview of MCMs
 Max. 25MHz, 12-axis Pulse Output
 Support Pulse/DIR, CW/CCW, Pulse A/B output
 Max. 25MHz, 8-axis 32-bit Encoder Input
 Support Pulse/DIR, CW/CCW, Pulse A/B input
 Max. 4-axis 3-phase PWM output
 Support edge-aligned & center-aligned PWM for
realizing SPWM & SVPWM

21. Key Specification
of
Motion-Control Modules

22. Servo Mode of MCM
Pulse
Servo A
DIR
CW
Servo B
CCW
Pulse A
Servo C
Pulse B
MCM in Servo Mode
P-command
servo driver
stepping
motor

23. Supported Pulse Waveforms
 Pulse/DIR
 CW/CCW
 Pulse A/B
Motor
Motor

24. Main Features of Servo Mode
 Configurable Pulse Clock
 Arbitrary rational clock between 10Hz ~ 25MHz
 Configurable Interpolation Cycle
 20 nanosecond ~ 100 second
 Channel Synchronization
 Allow to begin and stop 32-axis pulse output
simultaneously

25. Main Features of Servo Mode
 Output Masking
 Allow to mask pulse output anytime by external I/O pins
 Implement emergency stop without software effort
 Sufficient Interrupt Sources
 Interpolation cycle interrupt
 Pulse cycle interrupt
 User-defined interrupt event
…

26. Encoder Mode of MCM
Encoder
Interface A
Encoder
Interface B
MCM in Encoder Mode
A
B
Z (index)
A
B
Z (index)
rotary
encoder
linear
encoder

27. Main Features of Encoder Mode
 Support Pulse/DIR, CW/CCW, Pulse A/B Input
 32-bit position counter, max. 25MHz input
 Configurable Digital Noise Filters
 16-bit noise filter to remove 10ns (min.) ~ 655us (max.)
glitches on every input pin
 Allow synchronous & asynchronous filtering of different
pins

28. Main Features of Encoder Mode
 Position Compare Function
 Z Index & External Trigger Latch
 Automatic Input Speed Computation
 10ns timer resolution
 Sufficient Interrupt Sources
 Direction-changing interrupt
 Z-index interrupt
…

29. SSI Mode of MCM
SSI Interface A
SSI CLK
SSI DATA
×
SSI Interface B
SSI CLK
SSI DATA
×
MCM in SSI Mode
SSI absolute encoder

30. Main Features of SSI Mode
 Configurable SSI Clock
 Arbitrary clock between 10Hz ~ 25MHz
 Configurable Input Resolution
 Support max. 32-bit SSI encoder
 Gray-to-Binary Conversion
 Data-Format Error Checking

31. Capture Mode of MCM
Digital IN 1
Digital IN 2
Digital IN 3
HOME/LIMIT switch
Capture Interface
Digital IN 4
Digital IN 5
Digital IN 6
Tachometer
MCM in Capture Mode

32. Main Features of Capture Mode
 Pulse Width Measure
 28-bit timer in 10ns resolution
 Programmable Input Trigger
 Level trigger
 Edge trigger by raising edge, falling edge, or both
 One-shot trigger mode & continuous trigger mode
 User-defined trigger events

33. Main Features of Capture Mode
 Configurable Digital Noise Filters
 16-bit noise filter on every input pin
 Synchronous & asynchronous filtering of different pins
 Sufficient Interrupt Sources
 Capture event interrupt
 Trigger interrupt
…

34. PWM Mode of MCM
PWM U+
PWM U−
3-Phase
Complementary
PWM Interface
PWM V+
PWM V−
PWM W+
PWM W−
MCM in PWM Mode

35. Supported PWM Waveforms
 Edge-Aligned PWM
PWM U+
PWM V+
PWM W+
 Center-Aligned PWM
PWM U+
PWM V+
PWM W+

36. Main Features of PWM Mode
 High-Resolution PWM
 32-bit PWM duty & period in 10ns resolution
 Configurable Sampling Cycle
 1 PWM period ~ 229 PWM periods
 Deadband Insertion
 Allow to insert 10ns (min.) ~ 160ms (max.) deadband
PWM+
PWM−
deadband
deadband

37. Main Features of PWM Mode
 Programmable Fault Output Mask
 Mask PWM output in real-time by external fault signals
 Allow different fault output for different fault signals
Original
Center-Aligned
PWM output
Fault Signal
Masked
PWM output
fault output

38. Main Features of PWM Mode
 Sufficient Interrupt Sources
 PWM interrupt
 Sampling cycle interrupt
 User-defined interrupt event
…

39. Hall Sensor Mode of MCM
Hall Interface A
Hall A
Hall B
Hall C
N
Hall B
Hall B
S
Hall C
Hall A
Hall Interface B
Hall A
Hall B
Hall C
Hall C
N
Hall B
Hall C
Hall A
Hall B
S
Hall A
MCM in Hall Sensor Mode
Hall A
Hall C

40. Main Features of Hall Sensor Mode
 Dedicated to BLDC Motor Control
 Programmable Commutation Pattern
 Commutation Error Checking
 Sufficient Interrupt Sources
 Commutation interrupt
 Input error interrupt
…

41. Software Support Planning

42. Software Stack
User
Application
HMI, Motion/Motor Controllers,
Open-Source Toolkit & Reference Designs
Algorithm
Library
DMP Motion/Motor-Control Library
OS Driver
MCM HAL
Hardware
(DOS, WinXP, WinCE, Linux)
Vortex86EX Motion-Control Modules

43. MCM H/W Abstraction Layer (HAL)
 Provide a Unified Interface to Access MCMs
 MCM mode management
 Interrupt management
 Low-level register access
 Multitasking synchronization
 Manipulate MCMs of Different Modes with a
Modular Approach

44. MCM H/W Abstraction Layer (HAL)
 DOS Support
 Real mode: Turbo C/C++, Borland C/C++
 Protected mode: DJGPP, WATCOM C/C++
 Windows Support (Work in Progress)
 WinXP & WinCE WDM drivers
 Real-time driver for RTX
 Linux Support (Work in Progress)
 Linux 2.6 kernel driver
 Real-time driver for RTAI

45. DMP Motion/Motor-Control Library
 High-Level Motion Control Functions
 Point-to-point motion
 Multi-axis linear/circular interpolation
 T-/S-curve acceleration/deceleration
 PVT trajectory generation
 Pitch error compensation
 ……

46. DMP Motion/Motor-Control Library
 High-Level Motor Control Functions
 BLDC-specific PWM generator
 SPWM & SVPWM generator
 Clarke/Park transforms
 PID controller
 ……
 Keep Continuous Library Evolution

47. System Reference Designs
 Open-Source Reference Designs
 Sample motion controller (with G-code interpretation)
 BLDC motor driver
 IM spindle VFD
 ……
 Open-Source Toolkit
 Dedicated LinuxCNC (EMC2) HAL

48. Conclusions

49. Low-Cost Configurations
x86 & motion interface integrated in a Vortex86EX SoC
make low-cost motion control platforms possible
Vortex86EX
HMI
+ Motion Control
+ Motor Control
Vortex86EX
HMI
+ Motion Control
PWM
IGBT
Pulse A/B, Index
Motor
Encoder
Pulse/DIR
CW/CCW
Pulse A/B
P-cmd
Servo Driver
Pulse A/B, Index
Motor
Encoder

50. High C/P Configuration
Vortex86EX can constitute a high C/P motion control system
with other high-end Vortex86 SoC
Servo Driver
Vortex86DX2
HMI
PCIe Bus
Vortex86EX
Real-Time
Motion Controller
Pulse/DIR
CW/CCW
Pulse A/B
EtherCAT
Mechatrolink
…
Pulse A/B, Index
Motor
Encoder

51. Thank You!
Q&A
DMP Electronics Inc.