Performance Motion Devices Prodigy Series User Manual page 42

Operation
2
2.4.1
The C-Motion Engine is a self-contained module that provides non-volatile RAM space to store downloaded user
application code, RAM space for 'scratch' data variable storage, and connections to the communication bus allowing
the C-Motion Engine to send and receive messages through the network ports, communicate with the Magellan
Motion Processor, and access other on-card resources such as the dual-ported RAM.
Creating, compiling, downloading, and verifying a specific user C-Motion application on a Prodigy/CME PC/104
card is accomplished with the C-Motion Engine development system, described in C-Motion Development Tools Manual.
The outcome of such a development sequence is a downloadable code image, run on the C-Motion Engine, that
contains the user application code and that is executed by the C-Motion Engine on the Prodigy/CME PC/104 card.
Figure 2-3 provides an overview of the architecture of the C-Motion Engine.
Figure 2-3:
Overview of
C-Motion
Engine
Architecture
The following table provides an operational overview of the capabilities and resources provided by the C-Motion
Engine:
Resource
MIPS (millions of instructions per second)
User program space (stored in flash)
User data RAM space
User code stack space
2.4.2
Upon reset or power up the C-Motion Engine initializes itself and checks to see whether execution of user application
code, if downloaded, should automatically begin. If the factory default settings have not been changed, user application
code automatically begins executing and continues until the card is powered down or until a specific 'stop executing'
command is given. If this default value is changed, then the C-Motion Engine will hold in a wait state, and code
execution will not occur automatically.
While there are numerous safety checks and features built into the C-Motion Engine system, application code
developed for the C-Motion Engine is C-based, and thus there are limits to code size, RAM usage, and stack usage
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• Extend the functionality of the Magellan Motion Processor with higher level functions such as
contouring, macros, or other complex behaviors
• Lower system cost by combining a motherboard function with a dedicated motion card function in a
single-card format.
C-Motion Engine Hardware Configuration
clock
Task control
defaults
Powerup & Operation
communication bus
C-Motion Engine
communications
processor
C-Motion Code
Execution Unit
Specification
96
256KB
8 KB
8 KB
To
8 KB data
RAM space
8 KB code
stack space
256 KB user
program
space
Prodigy/CME PC/104 User's Guide