Accent adds SoC powerline communication tool to portfolio
ASM220 is suited to OFDM PLC machine-to-machine applications
Accent has added the System-on-Chip ASM220 to its ASMgrid2 standard product family.
The ASM220 leverages the company's SUNFX-PLC silicon solution to deliver an OFDM PLC communication device supporting multiple leading standards (G3-PLC, PRIME, ITU G.990x, IEEE P1901.2).
The ASM220 targets the rapidly growing PLC-based Smart Meter market as well as emerging machine-to-machine (M2M) applications, such as distribution automation, solar, building automation, and street lighting.
The device tailors existing ASMgrid2 solutions primarily towards the communication as well as processing needs for many M2M applications.
Accent's SUNFX-PLC solution, already incorporated in Accent's ASM221 and which also recently completed G3-PLC interoperability testing, implements a hybrid hardware/software PLC modem as well as analogue front end.
An ARM Cortex-M3 serves as the processor backbone for the SUNFX-PLC modem with performance intensive blocks implemented in hardware. The ASM220 also implements a scalable memory system, leveraging SDRAM technology, and when combined with its ample processor performance, enables the device to serve as both a host processor and a communication solution.
ASM220 product features include:
SUNFX-PLC hybrid solution supporting various OFDM PLC standard specifications
Support for other PLC standard specifications including G1, Meters and More, etc.
Complete, certified communication stacks as well as DLMS-COSEM
Software programmability flexibility to adapt to future changes of current standards
ARM Cortex-M3 with 110+ DMIPS of performance, single processor system for application and communication processing
Embedded 256 KB/48 KB Flash/SRAM with 2 MB package option
Compliant with CENELEC, FCC, and ARIB bands of operation, from 10 kHz to 490 kHz
Integrated PLC AFE and low system bill-of-materials
The ASM220 fully leverages the ASMgrid2 solution platform, which includes communications stacks, development boards, and reference designs.
"The ASM220 is a natural next step to the ground-breaking path set by ASMgrid2's set of products of combining high feature integration and product innovation," says Federico Arcelli, CEO of Accent. "The new offering retains leading-edge, field-proven PLC capability and performance scalability to address a wider range of applications than all other solutions in the market."