XMC4500 Timers - are they 32 bit ?

[#1]

All Infineon has released thus far is the imprecise "Comprehensive set of timers", and "includes new timer modules"
but no mention of the actual Timer precision and range. Surprising omission really.

NXP have 32 bit timers and 32 bit prescalers even on their M0 parts, and TI have 32/64 bit timers on their new M4, so I am guessing that Infineon have at least 32 bit Timers and prescalers with 32 bit captures, on a 2012 part, but it wold be nice to confirm that ?

Does anyone have more hard details on XMC Timers ?

[Markus_Kroh]

Each CCU8 represents a combination of four Timer Slices, that can work independently
in compare or capture mode. Each timer slice has 4 dedicated outputs for PWM signal
generation.
All four CCU8 timer slices, CC4y, are identical in terms of available functions and
operating modes. Avoiding this way the need of implementing different software
routines, depending on which resource of CCU8 is used.
A built-in link between the four timer slices is also available, enabling this way a simplified
timer concatenation and sequential operations.
General Features
• 16 bit timer cells
• programmable low pass filter for the inputs
• built-in timer concatenation
– 32, 48 or 64 bit width

[#3]

Thanks;
Since you do not mention the CCU4 blocks, are they 16 bit only (no timer concatenation) ?
The smallest XMC4000 members show only one CCU8, so that limits a design to 2 x 32 bit Timers ?
[Yet there are 2 CCU4 blocks, of 4 slices each, in smallest parts.
If those managed 32 bits, it would deliver another 4 x 32 bit timers ]

Do these 'timer concatenation' modes, work in Quadrature Encoder (Up/Down) function ?
[I have seen chain modes, that simply pass overflow, not direction]

What is the maximum external clock rate for a 32 bit timer ?

Are timers lost (?!) for capture, as in XE16x, or are the XMC4000 blocks smarter in design ?

[pcosta]

All the Timers inside the XMC4000 family can be concatenated in 32 bit mode. This includes CCU8 and CCU4 timers.

The smallest members of the familiy contain 1 CCU8 module and 2 CCU4 modules. This means that one has the availability of 6 32bit Timers.

For a Quadrature Encoder application, our XMC4000 peripherals offer several configuration possibilites. This means that the user can configure several profiles depending on the application requirements.
-> One can have a 32 bit Timer for tick counting + micro tick velocity measurement
-> 32 bit timer for tick counting + 16 bit timer for revolution counting plus + coarse velocity measurement
-> two 16 bit timer for tick comparison (monitoring up to 4 timestamps inside a rotation) + 16 bit revolution counter + coarse velocity measurement
-> etc

If by "external clock" you mean, that an external signal passing through the PADs is being used as clock source... then the maximum clock frequency is dependent on the PAD maximum frequency + the maximum frequency of the system clock of the derivative.
As an example, for the XMC4500, one can use an external clock for the timers (no matter if they are 16, 32, 48 or 64 bit) up to 30 MHz.

The organization of the XMC4000 familiy timers, follows a complete different structure then the ones of the XE16x.
Each Capture/Compare Unit of the XMC4000 (CCU4 or CCU8) is built of modular timer cells. This means that by setting one timer cell to be used in capture mode (for an application), doesn't impose that the rest of the cells are operating in the same mode.

[#5]

Thanks for the clarify - I think you are saying the capture has no 'other timer cost'.

Does that mean your instance of 6 x 32 bit timers, (smallest member) can also have 6 x 32 bit captures ?

Also, is there a FIFO, or queue on the captures, or separate opposite edge registers ?
A drawback with simpler single-capture buffering, is when measuring high frequencies, (narrow pulses) you can be unsure
if more than one capture occurred before read.

[pcosta]

Yes. You can have 6 x 32 bit capture timers in the small XMC4000 familiy member.

For capture control, one has different configurations possible.
It is possible to program the Timer Slice (and don't confuse Timer Slice with Timer unit... because a timer unit contains 4 timers), to capture in both edges of a signal. Moreover it is also possible to use for one Timer Unit 2 different capture signals.

Regarding, the capture buffer: yes, you are right. For fast signals it may be impossible for the SW routine to read back the capture data.

To overcome that, each Timer Unit can be configure to operate in a 4 depth buffer mode. In this mode, the SW routine is then relaxed when it comes to read back the registers.
It is also possible to programm this buffer to operate in a capture and lock mode (or continous capturing). In this mode, after the 4 capture registers are full the capture is disable until the SW empties one of the slots.
Each capture register carries not only the time information but also a flag that indicates to the SW if it contains new data or not.