Xianji Semiconductor HPM6200 Series MCU Designed for Precision Control

In the second half of 2022, as demand for personal computers and smartphones fell to a low point, the global semiconductor industry faced another downturn cycle after the consumer electronics boom brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. Chip manufacturers are increasingly burdened with inventory, leading to significant price drops for commonly used components like memory chips and MCUs.

One of the hardest-hit types of chips is undoubtedly consumer MCUs. Under heavy pressure, the prices of MCUs, which had previously skyrocketed, have now collapsed.

However, not all MCU prices are plummeting. Compared to the weak demand in the consumer market, the demand for high-end applications represented by automotive and industrial control has continued to rise in 2022, especially with the significant trends in automotive electrification, intelligence, and connectivity, keeping the market for automotive MCUs relatively robust.

Globally, automotive applications account for 39% of MCU usage, industrial control for 27%, and consumer products for 18%. In the domestic MCU market, consumer applications lead, accounting for 27%, followed by automotive and industrial control. Notably, the localization rate of automotive MCUs is only about 2%, indicating a significant gap and ample room for growth.

Currently, many domestic MCU manufacturers that originally focused on the consumer electronics market are beginning to pivot towards blue ocean and incremental markets like automotive and industrial applications. However, the stringent reliability requirements mean that automotive MCU certification standards are rigorous, numerous, and time-consuming. Companies need to invest three to five years without revenue during the design and testing phases, which deters many potential entrants.

Xianji Semiconductor HPM6200 Series MCU Designed for Precision Control

However, a domestic MCU manufacturer established in 2020, Xianji Semiconductor, announced in September 2022 that its high-performance MCU products, the HPM6700/6400 series chips, had completed AEC-Q100 Grade 1 automotive reliability certification, securing its entry into the automotive chip market. In May of the same year, they also launched the HPM6300 series, introducing three new series in just two years, sparking significant interest in the company.

On February 17, Xianji Semiconductor released the all-new HPM6200 series MCU. During the launch event, “Electronic Engineering Magazine” interviewed Xianji Semiconductor CEO Zeng Jintao and Executive Vice President Danny Chen to understand the technical advantages, target markets, and ecosystem development strategies of this rising domestic MCU manufacturer.

About the HPM6200 Series

According to Zeng Jintao, the previously mass-produced HPM6700/6400/6300 series has received high recognition from the market and customers since its launch. The HPM6200 is not a simplified version of the first three series; rather, it is optimized from IP design, architecture to software for applications in new energy, energy storage, and high-performance control, directly challenging dominant competitors in the market.

Xianji Semiconductor CEO Zeng Jintao

Foreign MCU giants have built high barriers in the fields of new energy and energy storage over many years in both hardware and software. To capture this market, domestic MCUs must deeply understand applications and fully replace foreign products from chip performance to overall solutions to truly solve the bottleneck issues.

“One of our goals in launching the 6200 series is to make breakthroughs in these critical applications and replace some foreign products,” he said. “Thus, we position it as ‘born for precision control’ and look forward to developing more suitable solutions for Chinese applications together with customers and partners across various fields.”

The new HPM6200 series includes 12 product models, offering both single-core and dual-core options, with 144 LQFP and 116 BGA packaging (fully compatible with the pinout of the already mass-produced HPM6300 series), featuring options with and without built-in flash memory (4MB). All HPM6200 products are AEC-Q100 certified and operate within a temperature range of -40℃ to 125℃. More product information is as follows:

● RISC-V dual-core supports double precision floating-point operations and robust DSP extensions, with a main frequency of up to 600 MHz, achieving 6780 CoreMark and 3420 DMIPS, capable of completing vector control-based current control loop calculations within 1us.

● 32KB high-speed cache (I/D Cache) and dual-core total of up to 512KB zero-wait instruction and data local memory (ILM/DLM), plus 256KB general SRAM, greatly reducing performance loss caused by slow external memory.

● Four sets of eight-channel enhanced PWM controllers, two of which have high-resolution PWM modulation accuracy of up to 100ps, improving system control precision and enabling single-chip control of multi-axis motors or complex topologies for digital power supplies.

● Two programmable logic arrays (PLA) for flexible implementation of combinational and sequential logic device interconnections, allowing users to design unique functional circuits within the chip.

● Three 2MSPS 16-bit high-precision ADCs, configured for 12-bit precision with conversion rates up to 4MSPS, with up to 24 analog input channels; four analog comparators and two 1MSPS 12-bit DACs.

● Σ∆ digital filtering SDM, including SINC digital filters, can connect to four Σ∆ modulators to achieve high-precision current and voltage signal acquisition with isolation.

● Various communication interfaces: one high-speed USB with built-in PHY, up to four CAN-FD, four LIN, and rich UART, SPI, I2C, etc.

Zeng Jintao also revealed that Xianji Semiconductor is currently undergoing the ISO 9000 certification process and has initiated the ISO 26262 certification to enter the automotive market. They expect to launch automotive MCU products with ISO 26262 functional safety (ASIL-B/D) in Q2.

Differences in Application for HPM6200 Compared to Previous Series

When discussing the positioning differences of HPM6200 compared to previous generations, Danny Chen stated that Xianji Semiconductor’s four major MCU series target different characteristics and markets.

Xianji Semiconductor Vice President of Sales Danny Chen

The HPM6700/6400 series not only has a high main frequency of 816MHz but also includes multimedia peripherals like LCD drivers, 2D graphics accelerators, JPEG decoders, and audio inputs, featuring 17 serial ports and dual Gigabit Ethernet communication peripherals. It has four motor control modules capable of outputting 32 PWM outputs and connecting to four encoders, enabling single-chip drive of four motors.

“Thus, the HPM6700/6400 can achieve functions like LCD display, audio signal processing, data forwarding, and motor control, targeting markets such as IoT, HMI (human-machine interface), smart buildings, and smart hardware,” Chen said. “The HPM6700/6400 received positive feedback from clients in drones, digital audio, edge computing, and industrial gateways as soon as it was launched, with many clients already integrating it into their designs, and some have even achieved mass production, such as industrial serial servers and DTUs in the electric power sector.”

In terms of competition, the direct competitors of the HPM6700/6400 are high-performance MCUs from international brands, even MPU processors.

The HPM6300 reaches a main frequency of 648MHz and features an FFA co-processor that enables fast FFT/FIR calculations, with three 16-bit ADCs and 10/100M Ethernet, suitable for applications in industrial automation and electric grids, such as servo drivers, PLCs, industrial controllers, and DTUs and circuit breakers in the electric grid.

Chen stated that the HPM6300 is also a high-cost-performance product, “Its high real-time performance, connectivity, and 16-bit ADC features have earned it recognition from customers in automation, electric grids, and new energy. It is currently being integrated into designs by leading clients in the industry, surpassing traditional DSP in FFT and AI inference performance.”

In the industrial sector, motor drive is a fundamental application for automation, used in CNC machine tools, robotic servo drives, and main drives and compressor drives for new energy vehicles. Due to the growth and increasing demand in these industries, MCUs face higher requirements, such as high computing power, high real-time performance, 16-bit ADC, Σ-Δ filtering, and single-chip multi-axis control.

“The HPM6200 can be said to be defined for industrial motor drives, meeting all the above requirements,” Chen said. “Especially since we offer options for single or dual cores and main frequencies of 300/600MHz, we can meet the needs of high, medium, and low market customers, achieving better cost performance.”

The energy storage market has emerged as a new direction in the past two years. Despite the declining trend in consumer electronics, digital grids and digital energy remain highly active. Applications like energy storage, photovoltaic inverters, onboard chargers, and digital power supplies place significant demands on the real-time performance of MCUs, requiring not only high main frequencies but also robust analog capabilities, such as high-speed high-precision ADCs, high-performance PWM, and comparators.

Chen stated that energy storage and digital power are also key markets for Xianji Semiconductor. The HPM6200’s 100ps high-resolution PWM, 16-bit ADC, and programmable logic array (PLA) can bring numerous possibilities for constructing new power systems. Among them, the 100ps high-precision PWM can improve the efficiency, power density, and cost performance of power converters; it can achieve various power topologies and single-chip multi-axis motor control; the 16-bit ADC can enhance the sampling precision of signals like current and voltage; and the PLA can implement rich and complex logic protection, operating independently of the CPU, greatly improving product stability.

Competing with International Giants

Currently, high-end MCU chips targeting the aforementioned fields are dominated by foreign brands, such as T company’s C2000, S company’s G4 series, and M company’s dsPIC33 series. These MCUs cover both traditional industrial control applications like motor power and emerging applications in robotics, new energy, and automotive sectors, posing a real “neck-holding” threat to China’s industrial and economic development.

Therefore, based on the characteristics of the various product series and their market positioning, Zeng Jintao believes that Xianji is not doing subtraction but rather differentiating its products based on industry understanding and market positioning. The prerequisite for achieving this is strong design and market capabilities.

As the first company in the world to achieve a 1GHz MCU main frequency using conventional 40nm technology, Xianji previously set a performance record for general-purpose MCUs with the HPM64G0, achieving a combination of high computing power akin to an MPU and high real-time performance typical of MCUs. Meanwhile, competitors capable of achieving 1GHz typically use processes below 28nm, showcasing Xianji’s R&D strength in high-performance MCUs on a global scale.

Zeng Jintao also outlined the advantages of Xianji Semiconductor when compared to competitor products:

Compared to T company’s C2000, the HPM6200 series CPU performance has surpassed it. The HPM6200 operates at 600MHz, while the C2000 is below 200MHz.
In comparison to S company’s G4 series, the HPM6200 series surpasses it in CPU performance, 16-bit ADC, and PLA functionalities.
Analog technology has often been a weakness for traditional MCU companies; however, the HPM6200 series features three 16-bit ADCs that can achieve a sampling speed of 2MHz, along with four-channel Σ-Δ digital filtering. In terms of precision control, the HPM6200 series achieves the highest PWM precision in the world at 100 picoseconds, with four independent PWM channels enabling multi-motor control. These analog performance metrics can fully compete with international giants.

When discussing the reasons for the internal configuration of various caches and large memory in the chip, Zeng Jintao believes this is a trend in high-performance MCU design. Currently, companies like ST, NXP, and TI are adopting similar designs. The advantage of such designs is that they can break the limitations of the “memory wall” and allow customers to run high real-time requirement codes in internal SRAM or ILM, with access speeds reaching up to 800MHz. This design also allows customers to freely choose the capacity and brand of external Flash, enhancing design scalability and compatibility while achieving better cost performance.

According to reports, the Xianji Semiconductor HPM6200 series targets international brands like T company’s C2000, M company’s dsPIC33, and a product from NXP. These companies typically add a DSP to the MCU, creating a hybrid market where C2000 holds over 90% market share, presenting high barriers to entry. The willingness to challenge monopolistic giants reflects Xianji’s confidence in its design capabilities.

Particularly regarding the DSP functionality of competitor products, Xianji’s MCU core utilizes RISC-V, which includes some DSP instruction sets. Although the Arm M7 core has strong DSP capabilities, based on the DSP parameters currently employed by Xianji Semiconductor, it is even 50% stronger than the M7.

“Our (core) inherently includes a strong DSP and further accelerations,” Zeng Jintao stated. “Domestic substitution is not an overnight process; the HPM6200 is just the beginning. More series and chip models need to be launched in the coming years to achieve comprehensive substitution. Of course, our current goal is to replace one or two of the most popular chips first.”

Building the Ecosystem

Whether it is Arm MCUs or RISC-V MCUs, a complete ecosystem is required to facilitate product design for developers. For high-performance and relatively complex MCUs, the ecosystem becomes even more crucial. Zeng Jintao stated, “From the very beginning of the company’s establishment, we realized that the competition in today’s MCUs is actually a competition of ecosystems, so we prioritize our self-ecosystem construction very highly.”

According to reports, the HPM6200 expands upon the existing ecosystem of Xianji Semiconductor, which includes the fully free commercial integrated development environment Segger Embedded Studio, as well as SDKs based on the BSD license. This includes low-level drivers, middleware, and RTOS, such as mainstream open-source projects like lwIP, TinyUSB, CherryUSB, FreeRTOS, TensorFlow Lite for MCU, and a completely self-developed high-performance motor control library. All official software products mentioned above will be open-sourced.

In terms of operating systems, Xianji Semiconductor has adapted popular systems like FreeRTOS, RT-Thread, Zephyr, and Open Harmony, making it easy for engineers to conduct secondary development.

He stated that Xianji Semiconductor is the first company to purchase SEGGER’s commercial IDE, following a reliable and legitimate path in software development, with all software from IDE to SDK being genuine. “Users no longer need to search for open-source or pirated software everywhere; they can achieve one-stop development.”

On the hardware side, the HPM6200 offers a highly cost-effective EVK with an onboard debugging interface, allowing users to debug directly. It supports ART-PI interfaces and Xianji’s general-purpose motor interfaces to facilitate application expansion and solution migration, with a retail price of 298 RMB.

HPM6200 Development Board (Image from: Xianji Semiconductor)

In addition to its own development board, Xianji Semiconductor has also collaborated with mainstream development board companies like LIGONG Technology and YEHUA to launch development boards based on Xianji chips.

“I can confidently say that the ecosystem we have built at Xianji Semiconductor, from software and system hardware development systems to supporting software and applications, is one of the most comprehensive in the domestic MCU ecosystem, especially in the RISC-V MCU segment,” Zeng Jintao stated, emphasizing that the HPM6200 continues the ecosystem of HPM6700/6400/6300, reflecting the expansiveness and continuity of the Xianji MCU ecosystem.

Currently, the HPM6200 series products are open for orders, and samples and development boards are available for immediate supply.

About Xianji

Shanghai Xianji Semiconductor is a semiconductor company dedicated to high-performance embedded solutions, covering microcontrollers, microprocessors, peripheral chips, and supporting development tools and ecosystems. Xianji Semiconductor prioritizes product quality, with all products undergoing rigorous reliability testing. The two high-performance general-purpose MCU product series, HPM6700/6400 and HPM6300, have performance levels surpassing similar international products and have completed AEC-Q100 certification, fully mass-produced and shipped to serve China’s industrial, automotive, and consumer markets. Xianji Semiconductor adheres to the principles of China-defined and China-manufactured products, catering to Chinese customers with a completely self-developed software ecosystem and development tools provided in an open-source manner to every developer in need, actively realizing the self-controllable development of the MCU ecosystem.

Related posts

Leave a Comment Cancel reply