AMD recently announced the AMD Kria K24 System-on-Module (SOM) and its new KD240 Drives Starter Kit, which are the latest additions to the Kria portfolio of adaptive SOMs and developer kits.
The AMD Kria K24 SOM delivers energy-efficient computing in a small form factor and is aimed at cost-sensitive industrial and commercial edge applications. Advanced InFO (Integrated Fan-Out) packaging makes the K24 half the size of a credit card while using half the power of the larger, connector-compatible Kria K26 SOUND.
The K24 SOM provides high determinism and low latency to power electrical drives and motor controllers used in compute-intensive digital signal processing (DSP) applications at the edge.
Key applications include electric motor systems, electric vehicle charging stations, robotics for industrial automation, power generation, public transportation (such as elevators and trains), as well as surgical robotics and medical equipment (such as MRI beds).
Together with the KD240 Drives Starter Kit, a ready-to-use motor control-based development platform, the products offer a seamless path to production deployment with the K24 SOM. Users can get up and running quickly, accelerating time to market for motor control and DSP applications without the need for FPGA programming knowledge.
“The AMD Kria K24 SOM and KD240 development platform builds on the innovative design expertise introduced by the Kria SOM portfolio, delivering solutions for robotics, control, vision AI and DSP applications,” said Hanneke Krekels, corporate vice president of AMD's main vertical markets. . “System architects must meet increasing demands for performance and energy efficiency while keeping expenses low. The K24 SOM delivers high performance per watt in a small form factor and houses the key components of an embedded processing system on a single production-ready board for rapid market launch.”
Many factories have hundreds of motors that power the robotics that drive assembly lines and other equipment. It is estimated that around 70% of total global electricity use by the industrial sector is linked to electric motors and motorized systems. As such, even a 1% improvement in the efficiency of a drive system can have a significant positive impact on operating expenses and the environment.
“The AMD Kria SOM portfolio has helped make rugged hardware for cutting-edge robotics and industrial applications available to the masses, and we are excited to see the portfolio expanded with the new K24 SOM and KD240 Starter Kit,” said Greg Needel, CEO of Rev Robotics. “With Kria SOMs, we are able to simplify the development of even advanced control loop algorithms, adapt to changing software and hardware requirements, and create really cool things for commercial and STEM education customers.”
Simplified DSP Development
The K24 SOM features a custom Zynq UltraScale + MPSoC device and the supporting KD240 starter kit is a sub-$400 FPGA-based motor control kit. Allowing developers to start at a later point in the design cycle, the KD240 provides easy access for beginning developers compared to other processor-based control kits.
The K24 SOM is qualified for use in industrial environments with support for more design flows than any previous generation. This includes familiar design tools like Matlab Simulink and languages like Python with its broad ecosystem support for the PYNQ framework. Ubuntu and Docker are also supported. Software developers can also use AMD Vitis engine control libraries while maintaining support for traditional development flows.
With the launch of the Kria K26 SOM, AMD launched the first App Store for cutting-edge applications. By introducing the KD240 Starter Kit, AMD is now the first to offer pre-built motor control applications, enabling users to create energy-efficient industrial solutions that are reliable, available and have advanced security features.
The KD240 is supported by an optional Engine Accessory Package (MACCP), with additional engine kits available in the future that can be purchased separately for an enhanced developer experience.
Scalable SOMs
Kria SOMs allow developers to bypass the substantial design efforts surrounding the selected silicon device and instead focus on delivering differentiated, value-added features.
Connector compatibility allows easy migration between the K24 and K26 SOM without swapping boards, allowing system architects to balance power, performance, size and cost for energy-efficient systems.
K24 SOMs are offered in commercial and industrial versions and are built for 10-year industrial life cycles. In addition to support for expanded temperature ranges, the industrial-grade SOM includes ECC-protected LPDDR4 memory for high system reliability.