TRINAMIC Motion Control, a leading developer of motor and motion control technologies, announced the world's lowest cost single-axis motion control IC. The new TMC4210 motion controller performs all real-time position and velocity stepper motor calculations, relieving a host microcontroller from the software design complexity required to implement a motor control system. The TMC4210 is compatible with a wide selection of TRINAMIC and third-party motor drive ICs that use an S/D (step/direction) interface. The IC also incorporates an SPI interface to communicate with a host microcontroller, which issues high-level motion commands that the TMC4210 translates into a series of specific micro-step and direction instructions. "The total cost of ownership for a motion control system includes the initial software development cycle, as well as reliability testing for any subsequent system revisions," explained Dr. Stephan Kubisch, Head of R&D at TRINAMIC Motion Control. "The new TMC4210 eliminates hundreds of lines of code development—often as many as a thousand lines—and hundreds of hours of reliability testing for new and evolving systems, while also offering cost-sensitive applications a highly competitive unit cost." Using a motion control IC that supports multiple axes and complex acceleration profiles exceeds the requirement for many applications, needlessly raising system cost. The single-axis TMC4210 implements a trapezoidal acceleration profile, which is less computationally complex than sinusoidal or S-shaped profiles. This helps reduce device complexity and cost, while delivering performance that satisfies the vast majority of motion control applications. The TMC4210 is software compatible with TRINAMIC's popular multi-axes TMC429 motion control IC. The new device implements a subset of relevant instructions for single-axis operation and trapezoidal acceleration profiles. Stepper motors are a cost-effective solution for applications that require high-torque at low speeds and precise control of motor axis rotation. Widely used in consumer, industrial, automotive and other applications, TRINAMIC estimates that more than one billion stepper motors are shipped ever year. The TMC4210 is sampling in September 2013, and production volumes will be available in December 2013. The device is offered in an SSOP-16 package, priced at USD 2.08 in 1,000 unit volumes. To support rapid product development and prototyping, TRINAMIC offers a complete TMC4210 design kit with evaluation board. TRINAMIC
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