Additions to Analog Devices' Blackfin processors for converged digital signal and control processing applications have been announced. The Blackfin BF50x series delivers up to 100% greater performance than competing, comparably priced processors with integrated ADCs and flash memory, claims the company. The processors can be used to achieve significant gains in signal conversion and computational precision, and apply advanced power control techniques for greater energy efficiency for industrial applications. They deliver up to 400MHz performance at a price point associated with 150 to200MHz clock speeds. This extends the DSP capabilities to a wider range of applications, including those previously serviced by high-end microcontrollers. Designers can exploit the increased performance to use more sophisticated algorithms for precision control and more advanced and more advanced software tools and libraries for code generation, to shorten product development cycles. To minimise the need for external components, the processor has industry-standard interfaces. Off-chip components are further reduced with the optional, integrated dual SAR 12bit ADCs for data conversion, and 4Mbyte of on-board executable flash memory. An ADC control module provides the means to synchronise ADC sampling with external events. The processor is suitable for power inverters, UPS, servo controls and motor controls as well as smart metering and advanced sensing applications including power metering and flow/level metering. EZ-KIT Lite evaluation kits for the processors include an evaluation suite of the company's VisualDSP++ development environment. There is also a Blackfin emulator (ADZS-ICE-100B).
