Source: GigaDevice
    Against the backdrop of the continuous pursuit of efficiency, intelligence and connectivity in the field of industrial automation, GigaDevice has set a new industry benchmark with its series of advanced chip solutions. To accelerate the application and development of EtherCAT technology, GigaDevice has launched two chips - the GDSCN832 series EtherCAT slave controller products and the GD32H75E series ultra-high-performance industrial Internet MCU products. These chips integrate advanced control algorithms and hardware technologies. It significantly enhances the real-time performance, flexibility and cost-effectiveness of the system, and is particularly suitable for the robot field with strict requirements for high-precision synchronization and multi-axis coordination. With its high bandwidth and low latency communication characteristics, it can be widely used in the motion control systems of industrial robots, collaborative robots and automated production lines, providing a strong underlying support for the intelligence of robots and flexible manufacturing.
    Relying on these products, GigaDevice will further promote the deep integration of industrial automation and robotics technology, providing developers with more abundant and efficient solutions and driving the innovation and upgrading of industrial control systems.

What kind of MCU is needed to adapt EtherCAT technology
    Born in 2003, EtherCAT (Ethernet for Control Automation Technology) is a high-performance Ethernet communication protocol specifically designed for industrial automation. It meets the demands of servo control systems for precise synchronization and rapid response by providing high-speed and stable data transmission. EtherCAT supports microsecond-level distributed clock synchronization, ensuring high-precision multi-axis coordinated motion control. Meanwhile, its simple network topology and flexible configuration simplify installation and maintenance, and reduce CPU load, allowing more resources to be used for complex control algorithms.
In addition, EtherCAT offers extensive device compatibility and a powerful ecosystem. Many manufacturers provide standard-compliant products such as servo drives and I/O modules, ensuring interoperability while allowing users to select the most suitable hardware combination based on their needs.
    In the field of industrial robots, the application of EtherCAT is particularly prominent. Its microsecond-level response speed and nanosecond-level synchronization accuracy are crucial for equipment such as six-axis robotic arms that require multi-axis collaboration. According to public information, mainstream robot manufacturers such as KUKA and Fanuc widely adopt EtherCAT as the control bus to achieve complex operations such as welding, handling, and spraying. Currently popular humanoid robots need to control a large number of joints and integrate multiple sensors. EtherCAT's high bandwidth and multi-slave management capabilities provide support for this. Its distributed clock mechanism can achieve sub-microsecond-level synchronization of each joint, ensuring smooth and natural movements.
    For servo systems that support the EtherCAT protocol, choosing the appropriate MCU as the control core is of vital importance. This kind of MCU first needs to have powerful processing capabilities, such as adopting high-      performance CPU cores like the ARM Cortex-M7 series, to manage real-time communication and execute complex servo control algorithms. In addition, the MCU should be equipped with sufficient RAM for data caching and program operation, as well as non-volatile memory for storing firmware and Settings. To achieve precise position, speed and torque control, high-resolution timers/counters are indispensable, and ADCs are required to sample feedback signals. Meanwhile, the MCU also needs to support multiple peripheral interfaces to connect sensors and other components, and may require the support of an RTOS to ensure the stability and response speed of the system. If the application involves security requirements, the MCU should also provide features such as fault detection, redundant paths, and support for security protocols.
    Most importantly, the MCU should integrate or support external EtherCATIP to simplify the design and enhance performance. The main function of ESC is to handle Ethernet frames during the communication process between the EtherCAT master and slave stations and map data to local registers or memory, thereby supporting real-time and efficient data exchange. The MCU integrated with ESC function not only reduces the demand for external components but also optimizes the data path, further enhancing the response speed and stability of the system.
According to the above standards, the EtherCAT slave controller GDSCN832 series and the ultra-high-performance industrial Internet MCU product GD32H75E series, which have been officially authorized by Beckhoff of Germany and launched by GigaDevice, are undoubtedly the ideal choices for the control core of contemporary servo systems.

Super strong configuration and high security guarantee
    These two chips perform exceptionally well in the ESC function, and their configurations also surpass those of the mainstream products currently on the market. The EtherCAT slave control chip GDSCN832 integrates two internal PHyS and one MII expansion interface. It is equipped with dual-channel integrated Ethernet physical layer devices, and each channel provides a full-duplex 100BASE-TX transceiver, supporting 100Mbps operation. This series supports 8 fieldbus memory management units (FMMUs), enhancing data processing performance and security, effectively reducing memory access latency, further improving system response speed and real-time performance, and providing users with high flexibility in data mapping. It also supports 8 Sync Manager Entities to achieve efficient memory management.
    This product features up to 8KB of dual-port memory space, providing a solid foundation for big data processing in complex control systems. It is equipped with a built-in 64-bit distributed clock, ensuring that the host bus interface achieves high-precision time synchronization through high-speed synchronous and asynchronous slave interfaces, with a time accuracy better than 1μs. In addition, this series of products supports 8-bit and 16-bit serial/parallel communication interfaces, and is compatible with SPI, QSPI and OSPI slave interfaces, with a communication rate as high as 100MHz. It also supports EXMC synchronization mode. This rich interface option provides users with more flexible and diverse configuration solutions to meet the needs of different application scenarios.
    The GD32H75E series adopts a high-performance ARM Cortex-M7 core, featuring an ultra-high main frequency of up to 600MHz. It can maintain this outstanding performance even when the RAM ECC function is always on. This series of products supports up to 512KB of TCM, significantly enhancing real-time processing capabilities. It is equipped with 1MB of SRAM on the chip, which includes 512KB of TCM and 512KB of shared SRAM, and has 1024KB to 3840KB of on-chip FLASH, providing sufficient memory space for data-intensive applications.
    The GD32H75E integrates EtherCAT IP, enabling it to have an internal ESC subsystem and a series of high-performance peripheral resources, such as 3x CAN-FD, 2x USB, high-performance digital filter HPDF, EDOUT, 14-bit ADC, 12-bit DAC, comparator, etc. It integrates powerful MCU computing power, ESC, PHY, large-capacity memory, security features and diverse peripherals into one, effectively reducing PCB size, lowering costs and reducing power consumption. This highly integrated design is particularly beneficial for compact servo controllers and robot applications.
    In industrial applications, safety is a crucial consideration, covering both functional safety and information security. Gigadevice's GD32H7 series has been certified by TuV Rheinland of Germany and obtained the IEC 61508 functional safety certificate. It offers a comprehensive functional safety delivery package, including all safety elements such as hardware, software and documentation. This series of products is equipped with functions such as memory ECC check, watchdog timer, power supply voltage monitoring, internal temperature sensor and memory protection unit. In addition, for CPU, SRAM and Flash, this series offers a complete self-test library (STL) software diagnostic solution to detect potential hardware faults and ensure the reliability and security of the system.
    In terms of information security, product design needs to strike a balance between ensuring security and avoiding excessive protection, guaranteeing the effective realization of key security functions while preventing increased costs and reduced usability due to investment in unnecessary advanced security measures. The GD32H75E integrates functions such as code protection, secure boot, secure debugging, true random number generator (TRNG), eFuse, hardware encryption engine, and secure lifecycle management, aiming to provide "application-fit" security features, maintaining high cost performance while ensuring product security.
    By simultaneously launching the GDSCN832 series and the GD32H75E series, GigaDevice not only offers an independent EtherCAT interface chip solution but also introduces high-performance MCUS integrated with EtherCAT IP. Compared with only providing a single EtherCAT interface chip, this strategy offers customers more choices and significantly enhances design flexibility.

Build a stronger servo motor drive
    Gigadevice has developed a servo motor drive application solution centered on the GD32H75E series, which adopts the standard CIA402 protocol and is controlled in real time through TwinCAT. It can be widely applied in fields such as robots, CNC lathes, automated production lines, and robotic arms.
    This solution possesses a variety of powerful features. In terms of control, it supports contour position mode (PP), 30 origin regression modes (HM), and cyclic synchronous position mode (CSP). Specifically, under the contour Position mode (PP), fixed-point trapezoidal curve planning is adopted, and the entire planning process is static and error-free. Especially, it can maintain stability and precision even during high-speed movement. By integrating the origin switch and limit switch, 30 return-to-zero modes are achieved. This diversity enables users to select the most suitable return-to-zero strategy based on specific application scenarios, thereby enhancing the adaptability and accuracy of the system. Meanwhile, this solution also conducts real-time speed observation through an internal speed observer, maintaining smooth speed and rapid response even when the load changes, thereby enhancing the dynamic performance and stability of the system.
    In terms of signal sampling, this scheme combines the Σ-Δ modulator and the HPDF module to achieve in-line current sampling. The Σ-Δ modulator is a technology used in signal processing, which can improve the resolution and accuracy of current sampling. The high-performance digital filter (HPDF) module further optimizes the signal quality. The combination of the two enables online and high-precision measurement of the motor drive current, which helps to control the motor more accurately, reduce electromagnetic interference, and improve overall efficiency.
    Overall, this solution integrates advanced control algorithms and technologies, and enhances the overall performance and system stability through carefully designed functions, ensuring that the system maintains outstanding performance in complex industrial environments.

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