Avnet Design Services, part of Avnet Electronics Marketing Asia, has announced a low-cost Ethernet Powerlink Industrial Networking Kit that delivers a total development platform for industrial networking applications. Co-developed with Xilinx and Texas Instruments with supporting technology from Austria's B&R Automation, the Spartan-6 FPGA-based kit delivers an implementation of the Powerlink protocol (Controlled Node), development tools and other design resources to help developers of industrial networking applications build their systems quickly at the lowest cost.
Ethernet Powerlink is an industrial networking protocol standard that was first developed in 2001 by B&R Automation and the standard has been open-sourced and managed by the Ethernet Powerlink Standardization Group (EPSG), an independent association. At the end of 2011, POWERLINK was approved as a Chinese nationally recommended standard, GB/T 27960-2011.
"This offering underlines our technical strengths in the industrial automation market. The optimized Powerlink protocol meets critical system timing and performance requirements. We believe it will prove easy for engineers to adopt and the advantages of an FPGA-based solution will be clear to them from day one, helping them expedite the development of applications," said Andy Wong, vice president, Asia for Avnet Design Services and Segment Marketing.
Xilinx's Spartan-6 FPGA has the performance and networking capabilities to handle the Powerlink protocol needs while still having resources available to execute user-specific applications. For example, a motor control algorithm could be included within the same FPGA. The level of processing power offers greater integration options and higher performance within a single device.
"The Ethernet Powerlink Industrial Networking Kit gives developers a design platform from which they can easily get started and complete development specific to their system's design," commented Yvonne Lin, Industrial Marketing Manager, Xilinx.
The kit includes two Ethernet DP83630 PHYTER transceivers from Texas Instruments, IEEE 1588 Precision Time Protocol transceivers that deliver the highest level of precision clock synchronization for real-time industrial connectivity applications. PDI (Parallel Digital Interface) connectors are also included to extend connectivity to interface with the industrial components or devices actually controlled.
"The Texas Instruments DP83630 PHYTER transceivers provide network packet time stamps for clock synchronization, as well as advanced fault detection features that enable a system designer to identify and address deteriorating link conditions," said Alexander E. Tan, Product Marketing Manager, Texas Instruments.
The cost of the kit is $349.00 and is available from www.em.avnetasia.com/promotion/powerlink_kit.