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Case study: RelChip turns up the heat with Arm DesignStart

Chris Shore
Chris Shore
May 20, 2019

Aiming to push the boundaries of high-temperature electronics, RelChip has established itself in a niche market with the first microcontroller for extreme environmental products — those that operate from a chilly -55°C to a scorching 225°C.

RelChip used Arm technology for its original product design, and now is using Arm technology to enhance that product based on Arm Cortex-M0 processor IP to meet even higher performance ratings. They gained fast, easy access to the Cortex-M0 CPU for no upfront fee through Arm DesignStart, which helped them get to market quickly and cost-effectively.

“After surveying the field, we realized the Cortex-M0 was the perfect fit,” explains Marshall Soares, Relchip’s founder and president. “We used Arm Cortex-M0 technology for our first product, and that’s what made our company possible. Our customers know how to program on Arm—it’s proven technology. Plus, working with Arm DesignStart offered access to the IP at no upfront cost, so we could reduce risk and design right away, rather than wait on funding for upfront licensing before production.”

Top-gun performance

With the Arm solution, RelChip increased memory capacity from 4K bytes on the current chip to 32K bytes, which offers more flexibility in high-temperature environments that limit memory size.

“The numbers we’ve been getting have been very consistent, very predictable to the point of silicon,” Soares says. “It’s been a very straightforward design process for us, and the results, compared to the original design were nothing short of fantastic.”

Fantastic may be an understatement for the microcontroller’s jet engine application. A controller with increased memory that can withstand the heat of the engine at the site of the sensor or actuator and perform vital calculations helps decrease the weight on the engine and improve its efficiency.

“That’s a big deal when it comes to paying the fuel bill,” Soares explains. “A one percent efficiency increase equals a one percent decrease in the cost of fuel for a flight. That adds up to a lot when you do the math for every flight, every day. Furthermore, reducing the weight of the engine means more room for people and cargo in the jet, further increasing efficiency.”

Efficiency takes flight

By moving the sensor and actuator electronics to the sensor/actuator location, RelChip found it could increase efficiency, decrease connections, and modularize designs. The Cortex-M0 based chip design offers the perfect size and performance for RelChip’s target applications.

The result is a revolutionary improvement in sensor and actuator systems for extreme conditions that has applications for a number of industries, from geothermal to aerospace.

“The new microcontroller developed on Arm improves speed by 10 times, the area by 100 times (in the processor), and power is lower at 10 times the frequency than our previous design,” Soares says.

Onboard for the future

RelChip plans to continue its development work using Arm solutions through the DesignStart program.

“We’re looking to build entirely new families of system solutions, and since not all of them will be high volume for the markets we serve,” Soares adds. “DesignStart lets us reuse software to speed that development, and move forward on the right Arm IP for the project.”

Further information on DesignStart and RelChip

Learn more about RelChip and get started on your Arm-based custom SoC with faster access and lower costs through Arm DesignStart today.

You can get more information about Arm DesignStart below.

Arm DesignStart

Anonymous
DesignStart blog
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    Rob Kaye
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    • September 23, 2019
  • Case study: RelChip turns up the heat with Arm DesignStart

    Chris Shore
    Chris Shore
    Learn how RelChip developed an Arm Cortex-M based microcontroller with the widest operating temperature range in the world to be used for applications in extreme conditions, from geothermal to aerospace…
    • May 20, 2019
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