“Designers who have previously been constrained by the performance profiles of low-cost processors and microcontrollers can now overcome these limitations to realise new levels of performance and cost efficiency via a unified processing platform,” said Jerry McGuire, vice president, general purpose DSP division, Analog Devices, Inc. “Blackfin BF50x processors provide the performance headroom and integrated peripherals to drive greater innovation in embedded applications supported by low-cost evaluation kits and a rich ecosystem of software tools.”

Blackfin BF50x processors deliver up to 400MHz of performance at a price point where 150-200MHz clock speeds have been the norm, extending high-performance digital signal processing capabilities to a wider range of applications, including applications previously serviced by high-end microcontrollers. This will enable designers to achieve greater system functionality and precision through the use of more sophisticated algorithms, and allow greater flexibility to optimise system interface and control capabilities.

Designers will be able to use more advanced software tools and libraries for code generation, which will help shorten product development cycles and the time to market – but without compromising on processor cost.

BF50x processors combine industry-standard interfaces with a high-performance signal processing cores to ensure that applications can be developed quickly and cost effectively, without the need for expensive external components. With optional integrated dual SAR 12-bit ADI ADCs for more accurate data conversion and 4MB of on-board executable flash memory, Blackfin BF50x processors limit the number of off-chip components to lower overall system costs.

According to Analog no other DSP with integrated ADC matches the 400 MHz performance of Blackfin BF50x processors. The optional dual SAR ADI ADC integrated within the Blackfin BF506F leverages ADI’s ADC technology expertise to deliver 12-bit resolution, making it an ideal fit for applications including power inverters, UPS, servo controls and motor controls. The Blackfin BF50x also introduces a new peripheral to the Blackfin portfolio - the ADC Control Module (ACM) - which provides a low overhead, precise means to synchronize ADC sampling with external events.

EZ-Kit

Blackfin BF50x processors have been designed to equip designers with the level of performance they need to develop more accurate, energy efficient systems for industrial control and automation applications spanning power inverters, UPS, power and motion control, as well as smart metering and advanced sensing applications including power metering and flow/level metering.

The performance headroom provided by Blackfin BF50x series processors enables modern control theory and mathematics to be used in advanced system modeling, resulting in optimal power and control efficiency for any real-time system. Designers will be able to use the Blackfin BF50x processor to yield more precise control (e.g. motion), efficiency (e.g. power consumption), reliability (e.g. power quality), and capabilities (e.g. power line communications).

Also available is the EZ-KIT Lite evaluation kit for the Blackfin BF50x processor. These kits include: an evaluation suite of ADI’s VisualDSP++ development environment. ADI also offers a Blackfin emulator (ADZS-ICE-100B), providing designers with a comprehensive development platform that lowers the cost of entry to the Blackfin BF50x series.

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