A unified PC-based environment for power converter simulation and gating control through DMA

In this paper, a unified PC-based environment for power converter simulation and control is introduced. Using a general-purpose simulator, a power converter can be simulated on a personal computer. The switch gating signals generated from the simulation are then stored to the memory and transferred to the PC output through an inboard DMA card. These gating signals can be directly used to drive power switches through drive circuits. Depending on the generated gating signals, steady state as well as the transient response of a system can be evaluated. As compared to other approaches using microprocessors or DSPs, the proposed approach provides a simple and low-cost solution to the analysis and control of a power converter circuit. Moreover, through the DMA technique, the time required to generate switch gatings is reduced to the minimum. The overall structure of the proposed simulation and control environment is described in this paper. Results from test circuits are provided as illustrative examples