Control system hardware and software mappings onto FPGA-based SoCs
Modern PLCs are intelligent nodes deployed in the Edge and can have versatile and customizable added functionality. PLCs run software that conforms to the IEC 61131 standard, but expanding their functionality into parallel operations, such as image processing, network filtering, and other Digital Signal Processing (DSP) acceleration, is a desirable added value. The Zynq-7000 SoC provides all the features that are required to build a base PLC industrial controller starting from its PS based on the Cortex-A9 CPU cluster, with its rich peripherals set and the necessary memories and memory interfaces. Its high-throughput interfaces to the associated PL make the functionality expansion an interesting solution in a single chip.
FPGA logic and DSP resources can be used to build computational engines to perform many expansion functions, as well as building custom IOs and communication interfaces that are specific to industrial...