PMD Presents Navigator and Pilot Motion Processor ICs

Performance Motion Devices Inc. (PMD, Lexington, MA) announced its new multi-chip, multi-axis synchronization capability for the Navigator and Pilot motion processors. The Navigator chipset controls up to four axes of brushed dc servos, brushless dc servos, steppers and microsteppers. The Pilot is a low-cost, single-chip, single-axis control for the same type of motors.

The multi-chip synchronization capability allows more than four axes of motion to be coordinated between the Navigator and Pilot chips, or any combination of them, also enabling remote or distributed chips to be synchronized to within microseconds so that they can be used for coordinated motion. The synchronization feature is implemented by one signal that is distributed across several PMD motion chips; one chip acts as the master and the rest act as slaves. Once motion has begun, it will remain coordinated because each chip's internal cycle of calculation is synchronized with the master chip.