Sitara AM65x Processors: Your Industry 4.0 Solution
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Hi, I'm Carlos Betancourt, Product Marketing Engineer at Texas Instruments. And I'm excited to introduce the new AM65x Processors, which were designed with Industry 4.0 in mind. What is industry 4.0, you ask? It is the latest generation in modern factory automation. Industry 4.0 is all about smart factories of tomorrow.
The first generation started with mechanization through steam power. The second was defined by the assembly line and electricity, the third by computers and automation, and the fourth by the internet of things. This fourth generation increases efficiency by connecting sensors, robots, and computers to each other and to the cloud so they can make autonomous decisions, store analytic data, and assist humans to visualize information for making improvements in the factory.
AM65x processors seek to meet Industry 4.0 requirements by providing next generation industrial networking, enhanced reliability, functional safety features, secure processing, and scalability. AM65x processors integrate the latest version of the programmable real time unit for industrial communications or PRU-ICSS, which now enables gigabit ethernet. Factory networking has historically implemented 100-megabit ethernet. But with the rise of time sensitive networking, we are migrating to gigabit ethernet. The new PRU-ICSS provides that capability and offers flexibility in that it can be programmed to support tiers and standards and multiple communication protocols, such as PROFINET, EtherCAT, ethernet/IP, and others without having to change the hardware.
AM65x processors bring about enhanced reliability for industrial applications. This is mainly achieved by having error correcting code or ECC in critical memories and also by having a robust design to support 1,000 power on hours at 105 degrees Celsius and up to 200,000 power on hours at 95 degrees Celsius. ECC and memories also help support a robust solution for functional safety applications. Additionally, the AM65x processors offer features that enable developers to target levels up to SIL 3 of IEC 61508 for their end equipment without an external device.
Amongst those features is the integration of a dual core lockstep Cortex-R5F called MCU Island, which sits on its own power domain and is heavily protected by hardware diagnostic measures. This MCU Island can act as a safety monitor for the main domain of the processor. With the design isolation, the main domain may crash while the MCU Island stays alive and can reboot the main domain. Using this integrated MCU Island along with hardware and software diagnostics can help reduce the system BOM for a functional safety application.
System designers can use the AM65x processor security features to help secure their system. AM65x processors not only offer mainstream features, such as hardware accelerated secure boot and cryptography but also an advanced firewall architecture that allows dynamic access control to all resources, such as processing cores, memory, peripherals, and other regions of the device. These security functions are handled by the device management security controller or DMSC, which is a central authority in the device that secures critical assets.
By having centralized protection in the DMSC, the surface for attacks is minimized. This simply means that the DMSC ensures all secure resources are working in harmony. And a security breach in one part of the system does not lead to the collapse of the entire processor. Factory automation systems are comprised of various components and equipment.
Some require a display for human machine interface or HMI. And others instead require various levels of computing, such as programmable logic controllers or PLCs, motion controllers, industrial robots, and remote I/O devices.
All of these share common requirements, including the need for industrial networking, reliability, functional safety, and security. But they also have different computational needs. AM65x processors offer options to scale up and down in computational power by offering quad and dual core Cortex-A53 and 3D graphics acceleration core options. In addition, TI's Processor SDK supports all the AM65x processor options with Linux, LinuxRT, TI RTOS, and Android operating systems.
With these set of features, the AM65x processors offer a comprehensive package to meet the needs of Industry 4.0. To learn more and to get started with your design, visit ti.com/AM65x. Thank you for watching.
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