AMD Kria K24 SOM Launched for Electric Motor Control

AMD has a new system on module in the new AMD Kria K24 SOM. This is a really interesting board because it has a specific charter: to control electric motors. As electric motors have had more tuning options and need more precise control (think robot arm motors) having modules that can take sensor input and then quickly modulate motors has become a bigger business. That is the K24’s market.

AMD Kria K24 SOM Launched for Electric Motor Control

Here is the slide for the Kria K24 SOM. Xilinx’s, now AMD’s Kria business is designed to provide a FPGA on a module that can be easily integrated into carrier boards or harnesses. The idea is to lower the barrier to entry to using these chips.

The K24 has Arm cores and runs Ubuntu. It is also a lower-end solution compared to the Kria K26. The K26 has more logic cells, more memory, and etc. for applications like vision processing. The K24 is more tailored with compute and I/O for motor control.

Of course, AMD says that Kria K24 can be used with the Kria K26.

AMD is using a Zynq UltraScale+ MPSoC for this application with different IP blocks. The idea is that with Kria one can get up and running on the SoC immediately rather than having to start from a blank sate set of logic cells.

Xilinx also says that it has a compatible connector to the K26 so users can potentially mix and match. The K24 is a smaller board so that it can fit in more environments.

AMD has a number of motor types of motors that it supports.

Also to make this easier, AMD has the Kria KD240 starter kit.

Here is a block diagram of the starter kit with the carrier. Features like the 2GB of LPDDR4 are on the SOM while other features like the inverters are on the carrier board.

AMD says that the KD240 setup process is simple.

We looked at the Kria KV260 and found that it was about as easy as it says on the slide.

AMD is planning to have at least two different types of motor starter kits available.

Here is the product line. We asked why the KD240 was more expensive than the KV260 starter kit and were told the power delivery components on the carrier board are driving the costs up.

AMD is going to keep selling the KV260 / K26 so the way to think about this is the K24 is another family member rather than a replacement device.

Final Words

We know folks like to tinker with FPGAs and project boards. People also like to do projects with electric motors. We thought folks might like to see this board as an option for an easy-to-get started control platform. AMD also has the Kria app store to help get moving even faster. Of course, AMD is not trying to sell single boards. The idea is that folks can use starter kits during the development of carrier boards, and then transition to their own or other designs later.