SIGMA a universal platform for drive control

The author describes recently developed digital drive control equipment, CEGELEC SIGMA, referred to simply as SIGMA from now on. The equipment consists of a core microprocessor board plus optional interface and enhancement boards. The core microprocessor board incorporates one of the latest 32 bit embedded microcontrollers as well as significant use of run time programmable logic. This makes it suitable for use on a wide variety of drive types in particular those requiring larger amounts of computational power. Some insight is given into the background of the project, why it was done in the first place and the reasons behind some of the novel features. Examples are given to illustrate the flexibility of the controller. A DC motor drive is described as well as a vector controlled PWM AC motor drive