TMS570LC4357: Need LCD details and SD card details for LaunchXL2-570LC43

Hello Aravind,

To begin with, some background on Hercules products.

The Hercules product line is a family of device targeted at transportation and industrial applications. The product line has grown from its origin in the Automotive Industry over the last 20+ years. The TMS570 line of MCUs are automotive qualified with an operating range that is suitable for automotive grade applications. The RM product line is targeted at non-automotive applications in general and, more specifically, industrial and medical applications with a temperature range up to 105C. All the TMS570 Hercules devices are certified to the automotive safety standard ISO26262 up to  ASILD and both the TMS570 and RM lines are certified to the more general component level certification IEC61508 up to SIL3.

In conjunction with the certification, TI offers a complete ecosystem of tools supporting development of safety applications and use of the Hercules MCU in an application that is to be certified at the system level. The ecosystem and tools are designed to help our customers streamline their certification process by providing some of the evidence needed at the MCU level for certification and thus helping to reduce their resource needs for completing the task.

More information can be found online at TI.com including safety training ().

Now to specifically address your questions:

Aravind .R said:

Also we are hearing that Hercules MCU is best fit for Electric vehicle applications compared to Tiva MCU, please advise why is it so and what will be main benefits of going with Hercules MCU?

As outlined above, these devices have a rich automotive history combined with the ISO26262 safety certification which make them ideal for any automotice application. With EV application in particular, the BMS applications are a great fit as evidenced by our BMS TI design ()

Aravind .R said:

one of my customer working on LaunchXL2-570LC43  kit for their electric vehicle service equipment which is basically a controller card for communication btw EV charger and server.. They primarly need MCU device with CAN, Ethernet and LCD drive capability.

They would need to connect 7inch LCD display to Launchpad kit, please help to advise any reliable/low cost source for LCD vendor/LCD booster packs avalable with which we can interface and test, we need LCD module with in-built driver which can be interfaced with hercules MCU via SPI/I2C/Paralle bus to drive same. Aside this Can Hercules MCU will be able to drive RGB o/p based LCD directly without any external drivers?

Also please advise whether any SD card booster backs available which we can interface with above Hercules launchpad kit.

Now to address the earlier questions. The hercules products have typically been used in vehicle ECUs where there is no user interface such as airbag controllers, brake controllers, body controllers, etc. As such, the devices have not specifically targeted the use of things like SD card readers or LCD displays.

Not to say that they can't be supported, just that they haven't been specifically targeted. Our more expensive development kits (HDKs) have SD Card readers included on the board but we don't have any useful SW support/examples that I am aware of for this functionality although I am aware of customers that have been able to implement them.

In regard to LCD displays, I am not aware of any specific application where an LCD display has been used, but, again, this isn't to say that it can't be done as long as you are able to find a display with the built in drivers and a simple interface such as SPI, I2C, Ethernet  or similar. There are no LCD driver pins or IP on the device itself.

For these reasons, we can't provide a lot of insight on LCD displays or SD Card kits that are easily integrated with the LC43 Launchpad.

It is worth asking if the application that they are working on is required to be safety certified? If not, then TM4C sounds like it might be better suited for their purposes rather than Hercules since TM4C has all of the required communication modules as well as the LCD capability. If safety certification is required, the suggestion would be to, perhaps, use a lower end Hercules (TMS570LS04/03/02 or TMS570LS12x/11x families) for the safety critical operations such as monitoring/controlling voltages, currents, and diagnostics for thermal runaway and use a separate chip for the GUI such as the TM4C129 with Ethernet or TM4C123 if Ethernet isn't required for the GUI.

Please let me know if this is helpful and if needed, we can setup a call to go through more detailed information on Hercules and how it can help customers implement safety.