The TMC222 is a stepper-motor controller that has accelleration and decelleration control as well as internal position memory and current control.
It’s controlled via I2C and the controllers can bet set to two different I2C addresses, but are also programmable with a larger address range. (One time programmable!)
ONsemi’s AMIS-30622 is functionally equivalent to the TMC222, they have the same pinout and all the same I2C commands, and they also have an upgraded version AMIS-30624 that has built-in stall detection. I got some samples of some ON semi parts and will be trying them out.
These stepper controllers look very useful compared to the various allegro and l297/8 drivers that are more common because all of the input is through i2c so it saves uC outputs, and they also handle all of the ramp-up/down and the minimum, maximum and acceleration speeds are all programmable to 4-bit resolution. There’s also a constant speed mode that would make it very useful for robotics.
And on top of that, my a3977 drivers I used previously needed 30-40 or so external parts and about 5 square inches of PCB per motor, while the AMIS-30624 drivers need only 8 external parts and 1/3 as much space.