Cooperation of Altera and IXXAT
Cooperation of IXXAT and Altera at FPGA based solutions for Industrial Ethernet Protocols
Due to the benefits of high performance and low cost, the use of Ethernet-based communication protocols, like PROFINET, Ethernet/IP, EtherCAT, Powerlink or SERCOS III, is growing rapidly in the industrial market. However, despite the fact that they are all Ethernet based, many of the protocols in use today are incompatible, leaving the developer with the problem of how to cost effectively support multiple standards.
Some protocols use standard Ethernet hardware and only require different software, while others require additional hardware. Using traditional methodologies, the only way to resolve this issue is to design a custom solution for each protocol. This is expensive to develop and support, and does not address the problem of ASIC supply or how to support newer versions of protocols that require different hardware.
With FPGA devices and soft processor cores, like Altera’s Nios II processor, it is possible to create a single hardware platform that is capable of supporting all Ethernet-based industrial protocols, for example Powerlink, PROFINET RT, EtherCAT, EtherNet/IP, SERCOS III and Modbus/TCP. To support any of these protocols, all the developer needs is a single FPGA based programmable hardware platform and the appropriate IP package (software and hardware) from a vendor like IXXAT.
Altera and IXXAT have developed a solution to provide a set of off-the-shelf Industrial Ethernet solutions that allow the developer to quickly, easily and cost effectively support many Industrial Ethernet protocols. Targeting low- to mid-volumes and leveraging Altera’s Cyclone III FPGAs, IXXAT’s FPGA based Industrial Ethernet communication module can be easily built into a product to add flexible Industrial Ethernet capabilities – to support a different protocol all you need to do is download a different FPGA configuration. The module connects to the existing processor in the developers system and is programmed through a protocol independent Application Programmer`s Interface (API) – this means that no application changes are required to support different Industrial Ethernet protocols. The form factor of the communication module can be tailored to fit customer specific requirements or, for higher volume projects, the module design can be integrated directly into the developers system.
IXXAT pre-verified IP modules deliver fast development times with reduced cost and risk. Altera’s low power Cyclone III FPGA reduces development costs and increase designer productivity by allowing multipe features and functionality to be easily integrated into the design. The flexibility of the IXXAT solution enables developers to support multiple protocols and easily update equipment to support new protocols, or new protocol variants, simply by re-programming the FPGA – even if the product is deployed in the field.
