Application specific instruction set processor for sensor conditioning in automotive applications

Abstract

In the automotive electronic market, sensor conditioning is one of the driving applications. Sensor solutions are pervasive in the vehicle, while signal processing in such application is getting more and more complex. Currently the design strategy is often the standard ASIC flow, but the design effort can be reduced by automatic or platform-aided design strategies, or by using software-based solutions. In this paper SensASIP platform is presented. It is a design platform targeting a microprocessor architecture enhanced by dedicated instructions for computing intensive sensor signal processing tasks. SensASIP allows a seamless design flow from MATLAB-based algorithm definition and instruction set design and simulation, down to hardware macrocell HDL description and implementation in CMOS technology. SensASIP features are described through two automotive sensor conditioning examples. Special focus is put on its increased flexibility and reduced design-effort vs. standard ASIC design approach and on its low complexity overhead vs. other state-of-art software-based solution

Real-Time and High-Accuracy Arctangent Computation Using CORDIC and Fast Magnitude Estimation

“…However, as proved in [5], the use of the proposed CORDIC macrocell integrated on-chip allows for savings in Electronics 2017, 6, 22 9 of 10 power consumption up to 75%. It should be noted that the proposed macrocell can be also integrated in FPGA technology, as in [16], in case the application of interest requires an FPGA implementation rather than a system-on-chip one.…”

“…The proposed improved CORDIC IP has been integrated in an application-specific processor, called SENSASIP [5], to improve the digital signal processing capability of a 32-bit CORTEX-M0 core. Particularly, the SENSASIP chip is used to implement the algorithms in [3,[19][20][21] in real time for the sensor signal processing of a 3D Hall sensor and of an inductive position sensor in X-by-wire automotive applications.…”

“…One of those is the use of CORDIC as an arctangent computation block, from here referenced as atan-CORDIC. For example, it is at the core of the phase calculation of complex-envelope signals from the in-phase and quadrature components in communication systems, or for angular position measurement in automotive applications, or for phase computation in power systems control and in AC circuit analysis [5][6][7][8][9]. Although the standard CORDIC algorithm is well known in literature, its efficient implementation in terms of computation accuracy and with low overheads in terms of circuit complexity and power consumption is still an open issue [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16].…”

“…Moreover, many applications using CORDIC, such as position sensor conditioning on-board vehicles, typically do not adopt floating-point units. For example, in automotive or industrial applications, at maximum 32-bit fixed-point processors are used [5,17].…”

Fully-Integrated Converter for Low-Cost and Low-Size Power Supply in Internet-of-Things Applications

“…The future evolution of COTS components in deep scaled technologies (also for IoT) is moving toward multi-core system-on-chip where different macrocells (e.g., processors, memories) are integrated on-chip interconnected through a network on chip [102][103][104][105][106] and/or to application specific processors for sensor conditioning [107][108][109][110]. In such cases, the voltage level requirements will remain more or less the same.…”