The Windows real-time extension »RealTime Suite« of the Berlin company Kithara Software enables with its new CAN module the development of automation solutions where a CAN communication in real-time is required. It focuses especially on users who need a time-critical handling of CAN messages, for instance machine builders and computer control companies.

In this areas a safe and timely equidistant data exchange is usually needed as well as a fast reaction on external events. Here, the standard Windows drivers delivered with CAN boards fail, because they are only usable from within the application context.

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By Christian Schlegel, IXXAT Automation

One solution circumventing the limitations of CANopen (limited bandwidth, limited system extension) would be switching completely to Ethernet POWERLINK. However, for many systems this would be like the tail wagging the dog since the POWERLINK technology is more expensive than the CANopen technology (e.g. cabling costs, hardware costs, system integration costs). Instead of converting a system completely from CANopen to POWERLINK, it often makes sense to build a new system structure using several subsystems. The following two system architectures are possible…

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The universal Embedded Platform, which was already successful presented in March on the Embedded World Fair in Nuremberg, can as of now be delivered to interested customers.

The Embedded Platform was specially designed for customers, which like to develop applications for the industrial or automotive area, but do not yet have the final target hardware with the required field bus interfaces available.

The hardware supports a temperature range between -20 °C and +70 °C, is based on a powerful microcontroller module and provides many interfaces for the connection to all important field bus systems (FlexRay, 4 x CAN, 2 x LIN, K-Line and others). In addition, RS-232 interfaces for the connection of external peripheral devices are available, as well as digital and analog I/Os.
Time stamps with an accuracy of 100 ns can be assigned to the messages on all bus interfaces. This also applies for the analog and digital I/Os.

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By Dr. Martin Merkel, Christian Schlegel, IXXAT Automation GmbH

Already in the early days of CAN, Philips Medical Systems noticed the advantages of CAN and decided to use this network protocol as communication network for interconnecting various components such as collimators, generators, and patient tables in their x-ray systems. To achieve a modular and open approach, a group within Philips Medical Systems, managed by Tom Suters, developed the first higher layer protocol for CAN, the CAN Message Specification – CMS, which was presented to the public in 1992.
CMS provided the framework for the first official CAN based communication protocol specified by CAN in Automation, the CAN Application Layer (CAL). One of the reasons that may have lead to the limited market penetration was that CAL did not provide the functionality necessary for a straight-forward description of generic device or application profiles…

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IXXAT Automation GmbH, a leading supplier of products and services for the data communication in industrial and mobile systems, has announced the release of an IntervalZero RTX driver for one of its CAN boards, and said it will soon release RTX drivers for other CAN boards.
IXXAT’s communication solutions like CAN Boards, CANopen software and tools are used by companies worldwide in applications such as machine control, elevator technology, marine automation, commercial vehicles, military and medical technology.

The first RTX driver will be available for the intelligent CAN board iPC-I 320/PCI as this board is very interesting for hard real-time solutions. The next boards that will be supported are the high-end board series iPC-I XC16 and the USB-to-CAN.

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IXXAT Automation GmbH is pleased to announce that the versatile CANopenRT protocol software now supports the most recent implementation of the SocketCAN drivers for Linux using the Sysfs virtual file system.

SocketCAN is a set of open source drivers and a network stack that extends the Berkeley sockets API in Linux by introducing a new protocol family PF_CAN. Main components of SocketCAN are the network device drivers for different CAN controllers and the implementation of the CAN protocol family. The SocketCAN framework has become part of vanilla kernel starting with 2.6.25.

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IXXAT Automation announces the port of its CAN driver software to TenAsys INtime RTOS for Windows.

TenAsys Corporation is a leading provider of real-time OS and virtualization software technology. The INtime software combines deterministic, hard real-time control with standard Windows operating systems without requiring additional hardware. Real-time and non-real-time applications run in separate virtual machines on a single computer, enabling cost-effective, reliable control that is easy to develop and maintain.

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The CANopen Master API and CANopen Manager API from IXXAT now support also Microsoft Windows Vista.

With Windows Vista Microsoft released a successor to Windows XP that not only features an updated user interface but also introduces a number of new security and safety features that have direct impact on user applications and driver software. With version 5.2 of the CANopen Master API and version 2.0 of the CANopen Manager API IXXAT now fully supports both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of this new operating system.

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The FlexRay/CAN Gateway software package enables the user to set up a flexible and configurable gateway for the transmission of FlexRay messages and signals to CAN, based on the FlexRay CCM or the FRC-EP150 hardware platform. In case of using the new FlexRay platform FRC-EP150, easy user configurable gateways with up to four CAN interfaces are possible.
The transmission can be performed in both directions and is especially useful for applications where existing CAN-based measurement and control technology has to be integrated into FlexRay environments. In addition, data exchange from CAN-to-CAN and FlexRay-to-FlexRay is possible.

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IXXAT’s CARcorder is an universal, automotive diagnosis and logging system for all vehicle communication busses.

The two processor architecture enables the fanless device to record all traffic synchronously and without loosing any data. At this, the CARcorder provides the following interfaces: FlexRay, 6 x CAN, 4 x LIN, K-Line, Ethernet, Digital/Analog-IO and RS232.
The logging application runs on an embedded PC with 520 MHz clock frequency and Windows CE operating system. The separate field bus controller provides a real time recording capability with a time stamp accuracy of 1 µs.

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