Embedded Software

DUAL TI TMS 320LF2407 DSP based Variable Frequency Converter Board Bring-up

Customer

A leading provider of distributed power systems related products and solutions in Canada.

Business challenge

The customer designed a board for Variable frequency converter application and needed a outsourced partner bring-up the board by writing necessary FPGA code, DSP code and drivers to test the functionality of various peripherals on the board. Carryout modifications on the board to correct the mistakes identified.

Solution

The board was based on two TI DSPs TMS 320LF2407 connected to other peripherals on the board using Altera Cyclone FPGA EP1C6Q240 . The board has peripherals such as 32 optically isolated Digital I/Os, 16 Analog input channels along with Analog Devices Isolation amplifiers, 16 fibre out PWM channels and 16 fibre input feedback channels.

Caravel developed the necessary boot-up code DSPs using TI Code composer studio, code for Altera Cyclone FPGA in AHDL using Quartus II design software, developed driver routines to check and validate the functionality of each onboard peripheral. The mistakes and corrections required on the board were noted and modifications were carried out on the board file of the PCB and modified PCB files were sent to the customer.

Caravel got involved in board bring-up stage of the development and offered a significant cost reduction to the customer.

Re-engineering of a legacy hand held calibration terminal to take care of component obsolescence and cost reduction

Customer

Manufacturer of a broad portfolio of liquid level, flow, and pressure sensors in USA.

Business challenge

The customer had a legacy handheld calibration terminal designed using the good old intel 8085 microprocessor and related peripherals. These components are not readily available in the market and the BOM cost is also very high. The customer was looking for a partner who can redesign this terminal to take care of obsolescence of components keeping the functionality, user interface etc as it is.

Solution

Caravel carried out the study of firmware in detail and prepared the documentation. Caravel redesigned the circuit board using 8051 micro-controller. The firmware was rewritten / ported to 8051 from 8085 code. The redesigned system was thoroughly tested with end equipment for complete functionality.

The component count (ICs) is reduced to 3 nos from original component count of 16 nos and the cost BOM was brought down to 30% of original BOM cost. The reliability of the system also increased due to reduced number of components.

The customer gained in terms of reduced cost of BOM, less component inventory, less manufacturing cost and improved reliability.

Development of a cross platform development environment (full-fledged IDE with parallelizing assembler and performance analyzer) for an European optical DSP module developer.

Customer

A start-up firm engaged in development of an optical DSP platform in Europe.

Business challenge

The customer developed a high performance DSP based on optics principles. The system has a number of subsystems that can run simultaneously to get optimum performance in each cycle of operation. This needed a assembler which can generate code to load these parallel modules with instructions and a performance analyzer to see which modules are loaded with instructions.

Solution

Caravel developed the full fledged IDE on Windows platform using VC++ and C. The components developed were project manager, editor, parallelizing assembler, Linker, loader. A performance analyzer was also developed which will enable the user to see how various modules of the DSP are loaded with instructions enabling him to modify his code for optimum performance.