©NationalInstruments Corporation 4-1 7344/7334Hardware User Manual
4
Functional Overview
This chapter presents an overview of the motion control algorithms and
capabilities of the 7344/7334 controller.

Dual Processor Architecture

You can perform up to four axes of simultaneous, coordinated motion
control in a preemptive, multitasking, real-time environment with the
7344/7334 controller.
The high-performance capabilities of the 7344/7334 controller result
from an advanceddual-processor architecture using a Mot orola MC68331
real-time32-bit CPU combined with an Analog D evicesADSP 2185 DSP
and customF PGAs. ItsFIFO bus interface and powerful function set
providehigh -speed communications while off-loading complex motion
functions from the host PC for optimized system performance.
The 7344/7334 controller uses the digital signal processor for all
closed-loop control including position tracking, PID control closed-loop
computation,and motion trajectory generation. The DSP chip is supported
bycustom FPGAs that perform the high-speed encoder interfacing,
position capture and breakpoint functions, motion I/O processing, and
stepper pulse generation for hard real-time functionality.
Theembedded, multitasking real-time CPU handleshost communications,
command processing, multi-axis interpolation, onboard program
execution,error handling, general-purpose digital I/ O, and overallmotion
systemintegration functions.

Embedded Real-Time Operating System (RTOS)

The embedded firmware is basedupon an embedded RTOS kernel for
optimumsystem performance in varying motion applications. Motion tasks
are prioritized.T ask execution orderdepends on the priority of each task,
the state of the entire motion system, I/O or other system events, and the
real-time clock.