I used the TI, TMS320F38379D, dual core processor in the form of a low-cost launchpad board that's only about $40. This is part of TI's C2000 flagship Delfino series of MCUs (we used to call them DSPs). The Launchpad board has little more than the MCU chip, a clock, and USB for JTAG emulation. There are plenty of connectors for accessability to all the MCU's pins, of which there are 337 in a BGA package. This is a dual-core MCU, but essentially the same MCU is available in a single core version called the TMS320F28379S,. for those that don't need a dual core. It has an IEEE 754, single point precision Floating Point Unit (FPU). IN addition, it had a built-in DMA controller.
This MCU is geared toward PWM applications, like dc-dc converters and motor controllers. It has 1 MB of flash rom and 204 KB of RAM. It's rated at a whopping 800 MIPS (for the dual core version). The ADC can be run in either 12-bit or 16-bit configurations, with up to 16, single-ended channels or up to 8, differential-mode channels. For 16-bit resolution, the ADC must be used in the differential-mode. The ADC can run at 3.5 MSPS per channel in 12-Bit mode or 1.1 MSPS in 16-bit mode with a total throughput of 14 MSPS and 4.4 MSPS respectively in multi-channel mode.
It has built-in USB 2.0 functionality, so there's no need to put an external USB chip around it. Other communications it has are: 169 GPIB ports, two CAN bus ports, three 50 Mhz SPI ports, UART, two Multi-Channel buffered Serial ports, and 4 SCI ports.
For PWM applications, it has 24 PWM channels, 16 High-Resolution PWM channels, six enhanced Capture ports, three enhanced Quadrature Encoder ports. It also has a Configurable Logic Block, which is almost like a small gate array that's programmable.
This is an excellent processor for grid-connected power inverters, 3-Phase BDC Motor Controllers, EV Charging Stations, and more.
This MCU is a TI Generation-3, which has the ability to make use of new TI control and analysis features by using their free, C2000Ware software. This software has built-in features to let developers run Frequency Response Analysis (FRA) and with code libraries for standard digital filters. There are many example programs available at no-cost to help the engineer get familiar with this MCU.
A photo of the TMS320F28379D Launchpad is shown below.
I recently used it for a DC-DC Converter project where I needed fine control over the deadtime for use with GaN FETs and this MCU has about 40 picosecond resolution capability. The tools from TI are really very good and their development environment is called Code Composer Studio (CCS) and is free. Years ago they charged a license fee to use CCS, but now, it's all free, including their very good Real Time Operating System (RTOS). TI even provides all the source code for the RTOS these days, which they did not in the past when they only provided the object code. Of course, that made debugging difficult, but that's all in the past.
I highly recommend the TI C2000 series MCUs for power conversion and industrial control applications.
