Editor’s Note: This content is contributed by Karan Kantharia, Product Marketing Manager for Kria SOM, AMD.
Inverter control for electric vehicle (EV) charging stations, sensor fusion for handheld medical devices, motor control for power generation systems, public transportation, autonomous multi-axis industrial robots, and medical equipment.
Digital signal processing (DSP)-intensive applications at the edge all have unique requirements. Among those requirements is the need to meet the space and power constraints of the edge and adapt to constant changes. At the same time, embedded system architects and application developers are under pressure to move fast and simplify processes, whether in design, manufacturing, getting to market, or ongoing product management.
Introducing the AMD Kria K24 System-on-Module
I’m excited to share that AMD is expanding the adaptive Kria™ System-on-Module (SOM) portfolio to help meet these demands. The AMD Kria K24 SOM is a power-efficient solution that integrates the core components of an embedded processing system on a single production-ready printed circuit board (PCB).
The Kria K24 SOM enables system architects to balance power, performance, size, and materials cost to meet challenging system design requirements—all while supporting their company’s efficiency goals. Coupled with the KD240 Drives Starter Kit that’s ready to use right out of the box, this SOM offers a seamless path to volume deployment for DSP applications, speeding time to market. Even after deployment, system architects can easily update systems thanks to a scalable portfolio of hardware- and software-adaptable Kria SOMs.
Using these SOMs simplifies and accelerates the design process vs. chip-down solutions. System architects can streamline operational flows and manufacturing; manage inventory and materials cost; save valuable engineering resources; and ease product life cycle management.
Strike the Right Balance of Power, Size, and Performance
For DSP applications, system architects must meet growing performance and power efficiency demands while keeping expenses down. Nearly half the size of a credit card, the cost-optimized Kria K24 SOM delivers compute performance and resource density in a small form factor. Beyond that, the SOM connects to multiple motors and provides high determinism and up to 2X lower latency compared with a Texas Instruments AM64xx standard SoC for a single axis drives application.(1) These factors make the product well suited for electric drives used in robot arm or EV applications, including those that use brushless DC motors.
Over the long term, the ruggedized and reliable Kria K24 SOM helps keep systems running seamlessly. The SOM comes in commercial and industrial grades, with the pre-certified industrial grade offering a 10-year operating life cycle and on-board error correction code (ECC)-protected memory. Additionally, built-in cybersecurity features help protect against threats.
Seamlessly Upgrade with an Adaptable, Scalable Portfolio
System requirements are constantly changing. The Kria K24 SOM is built on an adaptable foundation and part of a scalable portfolio, giving system architects enhanced flexibility to keep up. They can use a variety of sensors and peripherals as standards evolve. Plus, they can make quick over-the-air software and hardware updates, such as loading a new boot image, swapping accelerator blocks, and tuning systems over time without major changes to previous carrier card designs.
The Kria K24 SOM is connector-compatible with the Kria K26 SOM, which is optimized for vision applications. Based on application or market shifts, system architects can easily migrate between our cost-optimized and mid-range SOMs within an existing carrier card, or they can combine both products into one carrier card.
No matter the chosen approach, system architects can save development time by using a Kria SOM–based solution design—like a motor drive—for multiple applications or machines.
Start Fast with the KD240 Drives Starter Kit
Embedded system architects and DSP application developers need to get products to market fast—and have confidence they’ll deliver on requirements. Kria K24 SOMs and associated tools provide a seamless path to deployment.
The KD240 Drives Starter Kit allows developers to evaluate applications right away, streamlining the design schedule and amount of work required. This out-of-the-box development platform, with Docker support from Ubuntu 22.04 LTS, enables easy evaluation and testing for target applications before moving into SOM production. There’s no need to wait for hardware prototypes.
Additionally, we’ve simplified design by expanding flows beyond HDL, C/C++, ROS 2, and AI frameworks to now include Python and MATLAB® / Simulink®. No software tool installation is required to start evaluating and coding. In the AMD Vitis™ unified software platform—a comprehensive software and hardware design environment—developers can take advantage of hardware acceleration libraries, including a new motor-control library. Since these tools abstract the hardware and enable users to easily create complex FPGA algorithms by synthesizing a C/C++ function into RTL, there is no FPGA experience necessary.
Get a jump start by visiting the Kria App Store. The store offers production-ready accelerated applications, such as an application for field-oriented control with position sensors, and evaluation-focused demonstration applications from AMD and its partners.
Accelerate Time to Market for DSP Applications
Whether for motor control or for other DSP use cases at the edge, the power-efficient, long-lasting Kria K24 SOM enables embedded system architects to meet system performance and efficiency requirements today and tomorrow.
The small-form-factor Kria K24 SOM and KD240 Drives Starter Kit for motor control applications deliver resource density and low latency, a seamless path to volume deployment, and the flexibility to adapt and scale with ease. And I’m proud to say that for those looking to drive power efficiency in their systems, the K24 SOM offers a compelling solution.
Learn more about the Kria K24 SOM or begin your own evaluation journey with the KD240 Drivers Starter Kit.
1: Based on AMD internal analysis in August 2023, using the latency results reported by TI for a full control loop implementation on a Texas Instruments AM64xx standard SOC using a Texas Instruments benchmark vs. the latency results of a full control loop implementation using a Field Oriented Control algorithm designed by Qdesys. System configuration for the TI AM64xx SOC system: TMDS64EVM board; configuration for the Kria K24 SOM system: KD240 starter kit. The latency advantage improves up to 7x as the number of motor axes increases. Actual results will vary. (SOM-003)
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