Evaluation of the new generation of system-on-chip platforms for controlling electrical systems

This paper analyses the capacity of a new FPGA-based System-on-Chip (SoC) platform for the control of electrical systems. These new SoC platforms integrate both an FPGA fabric and a powerful processor. Among these platforms the Xilinx Zynq-7000 All Programmable (AP) System on-Chip is evaluated. The chosen algorithmic benchmark consists on a realtime simulation of a Voltage Source Rectifier (VSR) connected to the grid and supplying a resistive load. This VSR is controlled via a Model Predictive Control technique. The VSR dynamical model is implemented in the FPGA fabric of the Zynq-7000 while the predictive controller is implemented in its processing part. Both software and hardware parts of the benchmark are challenging. The model predictive control technique is computationally intensive. Moreover, the VSR model should approximate a quasi continuous-time behavior which implies that its dynamical model has to be executed at very high frequencies (10 MHz). Realtime simulation results are presented and compared with double precision off-line software simulation results.