An industrial control panel or terminal provides a visual interface for operators to monitor and control equipment, typically in a factory setting.
Clearly, industrial control panels must support high-end graphics without negatively impacting system communication. And in today’s connected world, the panels must also be capable of linking and seamlessly interfacing with a wide variety of external peripherals as well as accessories.
Atmel’s SAMA5D3 (ARM) Cortex-A5 eMPU, paired with a maXTouch-powered display, is an industrial control panel platform that is more than capable of fulfilling the above-mentioned requirements.
“Atmel’s platform offers high processing power and bandwidth for optimized graphics performance with the ARM Cortex-A5 based SAMA5D3 – which boasts a fully integrated MMU and a floating point unit to accelerate graphics processing. Meanwhile, our 32-bit DDR-2 memory interface provides high bandwidth to support high resolution screen displays and render complex animation,” an Atmel engineer told us.
“We also offer three high-speed USB Ports with integrated PHY, providing simultaneous support for three USB clients – which removes the need for an external hub. Plus, there are multiple interfaces available, including Gigabit EMAC with full IEEE 1588 support.”
In terms of graphics, the SAMA5D3 offers integrated resistive touch screen support, along with a direct interface to an external (maXTouch) capacitive touch screen module. On the software side, support for Linux 3.6.6 includes sources, pre-built demos with installation scripts, build instructions, along with various tips and tricks.
Atmel’s extensive development system also includes in-house and third-party modules, kits, OS/RTOS/Middleware and UI options, with the SAMA5D3-EK Evaluation Kit enabling rapid code development.
Additional information about the SAMA5D3 can be found here.
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