This video demonstrates how OEMs can utilize IXXAT’s Industrial Ethernet Module (IEM) to support multiple Industrial Ethernet protocols with a single hardware platform. Via SPI or Parallel-Bus your device will interface to the IEM and have access to EtherCAT, EtherNet/IP, PROFINET RT, POWERLINK, SERCOS III and Modbus/TCP networks. You will see how a simple IO board can communicate with both an Ethernet/IP network and an Ethernet POWERLINK by simply swapping the EtherNet/IP configured IEM for a POWERLINK configured IEM. The firmware inside the application CPU can support all of these protocols at once, and allows the OEM to quickly reach end users within many different markets.

Click here for more information about the Industrial Ethernet Module. North American customers please call 603-471-0800 x101 (for other countries +49-751-56146-0)

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With the new one-day real-time Ethernet seminar IXXAT presents a topical theme and enables de-velopers and decision makers to get a quick overview of the important currently available pro-tocols as well as the specific features and char-acteristics at the implementation.

During the seminar, the protocols EtherNet/IP, Profinet RT & IRT, POWERLINK, EtherCAT, and SERCOS III are introduced. Besides functional criteria, e.g. the level of real-time capability, modeling of process and parameter data as well as data transmission functions, also implementa-tion options, extendability, flexibility and popularity are discussed.

All this criteria are important for selecting the right protocol for a specific application.
Furthermore, the fields of application as well as the strong and weak points of the protocols are introduced.

The seminar provides a comprehensive, quick and open-minded overview of the new industrial Ethernet fieldbus technologies in a compact for-mat.

Since more than 20 years, IXXAT offers seminars in the area of industrial and automotive data communication. The real-time Ethernet seminar, as well as further seminars e.g. for CAN, CANopen, EtherNet/IP and FlexRay, are offered as in-house seminar in English or German language in a customized version on request.

Seminar dates: March 25, 2010 and Sept. 22, 2010.

For further information about the new real-time Ethernet seminar please visit www.ixxat.com/seminars.

The IEM implements a cost efficient and flexible solution to adapt to various Industrial Ethernet technologies. The IEM is based on a powerful Altera Cyclone III FPGA which includes, besides an integrated 32-bit CPU, PHYs, magnetic modules and RJ45 jacks, the new 3-port switch IP for Profinet, EtherNet/IP and Modbus-TCP.

The switch IP has been developed by IXXAT in close co-operation with one of the world’s leading experts in switch technologies. The IP implements a store-and-forward switch and is explicitly designed for real-time Ethernet networks. An implementation as cut-through switch is already in preparation.
The switch IP makes use of the priority information to transfer real-time Ethernet frames with lowest latency and jitter (in the range of a few microseconds).
The switch IP comes with integrated MACs which support 10/100 Base-T, half and full duplex. To make use of features like static or dynamic address table, aging mode, routing mode, etc, the customer can configure the IP by using its management interface. On top of this, the internal port supports filters and backpressure to reduce the load of the connected system.

The switch IP is also available as a product, based on Altera Cyclone III (further FPGA types on request). Furthermore, IXXAT also offers the development of fully customized adaptations of the switch IP on a project base.

Read more about the Industrial Ethernet Module

As one of the first devices, the IXXAT POWERLINK Starterkit Controlled Node (CN)
receives the official certificate of the EPSG POWERLINK Conformance Test. The Starterkit consists of an IXXAT Industrial Ethernet Module, a carrier board, a CPU module as well as a demo application. The IEM, as base hardware for different real-time Ethernet protocols, is based on the IXXAT POWERLINK stack, in the protocol variant for POWERLINK, and comes with an integrated Ethernet hub for the 2-port network connection.

The certificate ensures the conformity to the latest POWERLINK DS301 V1.1.0 specification. In addition, the Industrial Ethernet Module passes herewith the Multi-Vendor Test at the first attempt, which approves the interoperability with managing nodes of various vendors. The interoperability test shows again, that the guaranteed performance of the IXXAT IEM is a substantial characteristic of a POWERLINK module. Especially the very low response jitter below 250 ns as well as the guaranteed cycle time of minimal 400 µs enables the stable and error free operation of the Industrial Ethernet Module with almost every POWERLINK control unit.

The POWERLINK IEM is the optimal basis for an easy implementation of CN solutions, which also demonstrably works reliable in inhomogeneous systems. Due to the FPGA technology used, future enhancements, like POWERLINK High Availability (EPSG WDP 302-A) or Multi Poll-Response, can be made available to the customer without hardware modifications.

Besides POWERLINK, IXXAT supports the Industrial Ethernet Module also with firmware for PROFINET, EtherCAT and EtherNet/IP. SERCOS III and Modbus-TCP will follow soon. To change the used protocol, only the firmware including the FPGA IP has to be exchanged.

For an integration into customer devices the Industrial Ethernet Module can also be produced with customer specific form factors. Besides this, IXXAT also offers the design-in of the FPGA based Ethernet connection directly on the customer hardware. All variants are supported with appropriate services, like consultation, system design and development services.

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Today, the industrial automation market for Ethernet-based communication is increasing in demand. As with classical field busses, several protocol standards are available for Industrial Ethernet, which have to be supported by device manufacturers. Since these different Ethernet standards vary in their hardware and software requirements, a specific protocol solution for their integration into a device is required.

Despite the efforts of IAONA to find a common solution for industrial communication over Ethernet, disparate protocols emerged that were sponsored and promoted by a number of classic field bus suppliers. Eleven concepts to achieve Ethernet relevant for industrial communication are currently standardized within IEC 61158. Similar to the so-called “field bus wars” in the eighties, in the end, some of the eleven Industrial Ethernet solutions will be accepted in the market.

… read more

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…

… read more

A major safety feature for industrial communication is the continuous system availability, even if failures in essential components occur, e.g. in the communication master or in network connections (cables). To ensure a high system availability, the availability of the controller as well as of the network must be guaranteed.

For this reason, a highly available controller solution was considered for Powerlink at a very early stage, and was now specified in EPSG WDP 302 A and implemented by IXXAT.

Besides the primary Managing Node (MN), several redundant master devices can be operated in one network, which act like Controlled Nodes (CN).
The MN transmits cyclic messages to the CNs, to ensure the reliable detection of a controller outage within one communication cycle. In that case, one of the redundant masters is activated by using a priority algorithm and immediately continues the tasks of the broken MN.
The redundancy procedure is transparent for CN devices, so existing CNs can be used in highly available networks without adaptations.

A network redundancy is archived by using two independent network cables. All messages are transmitted on both lines in parallel to enable the message reception by the network nodes even with one broken cable.

The new version of the IXXAT Powerlink protocol software is implemented according to the Powerlink specification V 1.1.0 and is available as source code and as IP core for the development of highly performing Managing and Controlled Nodes based on a FPGA. The software is also implemented on the Industrial Ethernet Module from IXXAT. The extension package for the development of redundant managing nodes is optional available.

Due to the long-term experience in the area of Powerlink and due to the extensive collaboration within the technical working groups of the EPSG, IXXAT is the ideal development partner and supplier of components for Powerlink.

At the upcoming SPS/IPC/DRIVES fair in Nuremberg, IXXAT will present the new Industrial Ethernet Module, which enables customers to easily connect their devices to networks based on an Industrial Ethernet standard.

The new Industrial Ethernet Module was designed from the ground up to support various protocol standards.
At this, a powerful Altera Cyclone III FPGA is used and low manufacturing costs for the module were a focus of attention.
As a result, the new Industrial Ethernet Module is more powerful, lower priced, smaller and can be used more flexible than its predecessor.

IXXAT’s Industrial Ethernet Module will be offered for Powerlink, PROFINET, EtherNet/IP, EtherCAT and SERCOS III. Some of these protocols will be already available on the module at the SPS/IPC/DRIVES fair.
The contents of delivery include a protocol independent Host API, which enables the customer to switch between the protocols very easily by making only slight changes to the application. Among other things, IXXAT plans to offer an Ethernet switch, which is integrated into the Module FPGA, until end of this year.

IXXAT supports the module with an evaluation kit, which includes, besides software and documentation, a carrier board and an adapter board for the connection of various CPU modules.

If the form factor of the Industrial Ethernet Module is not suitable for integration into the customer device, IXXAT offers a design-in solution. Furthermore IXXAT also offers the development of fully customized solutions on a project base.

[Read more on the IXXAT webpage]

In 2007 CAN in Automation (CiA), the international users’ and manufacturers’ group governing the development of the CANopen specifications introduced a new XML based device description file format as CiA 311 – CANopen device description. CiA 311 is based on the ISO 15745-1:2003 specification which defines generic elements and rules for describing integration models and application interoperability profiles.
A new and more flexible device description format was required due to the numerous enhancements introduced in CANopen that were not covered by the original EDS format as specified in CiA 306. In addition to the general benefits of a XML based syntax, the CiA 311 format has the particular advantage of allowing for localized device description files, a feature becoming increasingly important with the global acceptance of CANopen.

To facilitate the transition from the previously used EDS file format to CiA 311 compliant files, IXXAT offers the Device Description Explorer as an application that not only converts device description files between the two formats but also allows for a graphical user interface supported inspection of basic device functionality and the devices’ object dictionary. In version 1.1 the IXXAT Device Description Explorer has been enhanced to support the most recent XML schema definitions as introduced by the CiA task force “XML”.

The IXXAT Device Description Explorercan be downloaded free of charge on the IXXAT homepage.

The current version 1.04.05 of the Powerlink stack from IXXAT Automation GmbH provides the following features:

• Node monitoring on Controlled Nodes (CNs) via object 0×1016

• Support of all priority levels on Managing Nodes (MNs) for the allocation of the asynchronous communication channel

• Support of all mandatory and many optional objects according to the Powerlink specification DS 1.0.0

• Modification of the Node ID at run-time via the object dictionary

• Tool for the stack configuration with GUI for scaling and generation of the IXXAT Powerlink software (especially static parameters and the object dictionary)

• Switching between MN and CN functionality at run-time by changing the Node ID

• Bug fixes and adaptations to increase the compatibility with implementations of other vendors

Many well-known vendors do use the Powerlink stack from IXXAT in their products, so the software can be considered as the Powerlink reference implementation. The successful usage of IXXAT’s protocol stacks in multiple devices in the certification tests simplifies the future certification of a Powerlink device considerable. Furthermore the interoperability of the stack was approved on several Powerlink plugfests and in many developed systems.

The IXXAT Powerlink software is the only one available on the market with an integrated configuration manager for the automatic control and update of the network configuration via the MN. An off-line configuration of the MN, with the aid of a separate configuration tool, enables the administration of all CN configuration files via the object dictionary.

To guarantee the maximum Powerlink performance, the stack is already prepared for the integration of various Ethernet controllers including hardware support. Especially for embedded systems, the integrated memory management for the administration of the configuration and application data within a non-volatile memory (e.g. Flash) is very important. The implementation of specification extensions, e.g. „High Availability“ or „Multi Message Extension“ is already planned. These features will be offered as optional packages as soon as available.

The new version of the IXXAT Powerlink stack is also available as IP core version, allowing the development of maximum performance Managing and Controlled Nodes based on FPGA technology. It will be ported soon for the IXXAT hardware products Industrial Ethernet Modul, Powerlink PCI Board PL-IB 300/PCI and PL/CANopen Gateway.

Due to the long-term experience in the area of Powerlink technology as well as the intensive collaboration in the technical working groups of the EPSG, IXXAT is the ideal development partner and product supplier for Powerlink.