A multiprocessor digital signal processing system for real-time power converter applications

Abstract

This paper describes the design of a multiprocessor digital signal processing system for applications in power converters such as those that would be used in the next generation of HVdc and SVC [1,2] systems. The system incorporates three high-speed digital signal processors operating independently in parallel, but communicating with one another. The fully programmable system is a powerful device which can implement sophisticated control algorithms in real time for converters. A prototype operating at a clock frequency of 40 MHz has been built for testing and evaluation of control strategies with a laboratory model of an experimental HVdc system based on pulse width modulation (PWM). The results from an illustrative application demonstrate that the design is well suited for real-time digital control of converters and the system is a useful tool for research and development.

Distributed, modular, open control architecture for power conversion systems

“…As the microprocessor vendors began to provide high-level languages, such as C, and to improve C-complier efficiency, which can compile C code to machine code at an average efficiency of 90%, people began to write digital power conversion control in C in order to achieve better readability and maintainability [92]. Still, because of the concerns related to response time or the real-time performance, the control software is constructed in the simplest main-program-and-subroutine style.…”