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Industrial
Motor drive and CNC
Build deterministic, multi-axis motor control with integrated encoder, networking, DSP, and functional-safety support.
Precision motor control, lower cost
Motor drives and CNC systems demand precise control, fast feedback processing, and coordinated motion across multiple axes. As machines add axes and tighten tolerances, controllers must handle dense encoder, current, and position data without jitter.
Altera FPGAs consolidate motor-control, encoder, networking, safety-monitoring, and DSP functions in one device. Drive-on-Chip designs support deterministic control paths, scalable performance, and shorter functional-safety development cycles.
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The Challenges, and Why FPGA
The Challenge
High BOM and power consumption
Discrete control, networking, encoder, and safety functions increase BOM cost, power, and integration effort.
Why FPGA
Single-device integration
Integrate control, networking, encoder, and safety functions in one FPGA.
The Challenge
Multi-axis synchronization
CNC and motion systems must coordinate feedback and control across multiple axes with predictable timing.
Why FPGA
Deterministic control loops
Parallel FPGA logic processes feedback and control paths with low latency and predictable timing.
The Challenge
Functional-safety development
Safety-related motor systems require validated processes, monitoring, diagnostics, and evidence for certification.
Why FPGA
Safety-ready design flow
Use certified tools, devices, and IP plus Drive-on-Chip examples to reduce safety-development effort.
Why Altera
Single-chip drive integration
Consolidate motor control, encoder, networking, safety monitoring, and DSP functions in one device.
Deterministic multi-axis control
Process feedback and control paths in parallel with low latency and predictable timing.
IEC 61508-ready ecosystem
Use the Functional Safety Data Package and certified tools and IP to support IEC 61508 development.
Safe Drive-on-Chip reference
Evaluate an Agilex 5 functional-safety design example for speed monitoring, cross-comparison, and motor control.
Get Started
More Industrial Applications
Edge computing
Process data closer to machines and sensors for real-time industrial decisions.
Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs)
Combine control logic, I/O, and industrial communications.
Machine vision and AI
Build custom image-processing and selected edge-inference pipelines.
Semiconductor manufacturing equipment
Support precision control and inspection data processing.
Smart Energy
Enable intelligent energy systems with real-time monitoring, efficient power management, and adaptable FPGA solutions for modern smart grids.
Common questions
The architecture combines supported motor-control processing, interfaces and embedded-system functions in one FPGA platform. Check the exact example for motor models, board, networking and optional safety functions before adapting it to a physical drive.
Use programmable logic when parallel axes, tightly coordinated interfaces or bounded timing justify the additional design work. An MCU can suit less demanding drives; compare loop deadlines, I/O, cost and safety architecture for the actual machine.
Use a defined timing reference and coordinate acquisition, calculation and output update boundaries across axes. Account for interface delays and clock-domain crossings, then measure axis alignment under the full system workload.
A motor-control example demonstrates specified functions on a reference platform. A certified safe drive requires an application-specific safety architecture and evidence for hardware, software, diagnostics and failure behavior, including the actual power stage.
Measure sampling, computation, output timing and shared-memory contention while applying the maximum PLC workload. Check whether software or interface buffering interferes with hardware deadlines before changing the control algorithm.
Integrate vision when inspection or alignment data must coordinate with machine motion and the shared device has sufficient resources. Keep motion timing bounded and validate the additional memory and transport load before consolidating both paths.