November 2015
18
I
ndustrial
C
ontrol
& C
ommunications
easy means of local or remote diagnostics
and maintenance. Besides these communica-
tions interfaces, it is the integration with the
analog and mixed-signal IP that makes the
MCU unique. It is equipped with four 12-bit
A/D converters, four delta-sigma demodula-
tors, and two encoder interfaces on the sensor
side. For actuators, it has two timer units for
controlling two full bridges, four timer units
for half-bridges, and two 12-bit D/A convert-
ers. This allows up to two motors, including
position detection, to be controlled through
resolver or encoder while EtherCAT commu-
nication is running simultaneously (figure 4).
The classic EtherCAT application is in fac-
tory automation. So far, the technology has
not taken much hold in another area that
also places great real-time demands on field-
buses: construction machines, forklifts, and
agricultural transport vehicles. That is not
very surprising, since previous EtherCAT
components have been unable to fulfil the
necessary demands on quality and reliability.
Much like in classic automobile construction,
components must be able to operate in an
expanded ambient temperature range of up
to 125°C and need an AEC-Q100 qualifica-
tion to verify reliability. The XMC4800 is the
first EtherCAT component that fulfils these
requirements. But there is one difference
between these areas and automobile construc-
tion: the XMC4800 has no PPAP (Produc-
tion Part Approval Process), meaning that it
is not intended for use in passenger vehicles.
The microcontroller family currently consists
of a total of 18 devices that vary in memory
size (from 1 MB flash and 200 kB RAM to 2
MB flash and 352 kB RAM), package vari-
ant (LQFP100, LQFP144, and LFBGA196),
and temperature range (up to 85°C and up
to125 °C). All components are code compat-
ible with all XMC4000 microcontrollers and
pin compatible with the respective packages.
Infineon offers both a development board, the
XMC4800 Relax EtherCAT Kit, and suitable
software development tools for immediate
EtherCAT node setup. The XMC4800 Relax
EtherCAT Kit is equipped with a XMC4800 in
an LQFP144 package and an on-board debug-
ger, regular Ethernet interface, CAN nodes,
USB, and an SD/MMC card reader.
The kit can be purchased from Infineon dis-
tributors or from the XMC Kit website. For
software development, Infineon offers the
DAVE development environment with librar-
ies for low-level drives and apps free of charge.
For EtherCAT, DAVE uses SSC (Slave Stack
Code) from Beckhoff. In addition to the free
development environment, commercial Ether-
CAT slave stacks are on offer from established
third-party manufacturers.
n
Figure 4. The XMC4800 allows a combination of up to two motors,
including position detection and EtherCAT.
Figure 3. EtherCAT and CAN run simultaneously on the XMC4800
– even as a gateway – without dedicated EtherCAT-ASIC, external
memory, or quartz clock pulse generator.
IntervalZero to exhibit at
SPS IPC Drives 2015
IntervalZero will be exhibiting at SPS IPC
Drives 2015 in Nuremberg. The topics of SPS
IPC Drives’ conference were divided and
reach from classic automation up to new fields
of application as infrastructure, logistics or
mobile machines. By leveraging x86 multi-core
technologies and symmetric multiprocess-
ing functionality, and by extending Windows
with the RTX real-time extension, OEMs can
replace real-time hardware, such as DSPs and
FPGAs, with standard Windows PCs to reduce
costs, and boost quality and performance.
Advantech: economical all-in-one touch
computers for industrial and commercial
Advantech announce UTC-315E/318E – a
multifunctional interactive self-service ter-
minal powered by a fourth-generation Intel
Core i5-4300U processor, equipped with up
to 8 GB of memory, and featuring a stunning
TFT LCD 16:9 display. Precision engineered
to support a wide input voltage range (12 to
30 V) for overvoltage protection and rugged
reliability, UTC-315E/318E provides an all-
in-one computing system aimed at markets
that demand cost-effective high computing
performance solutions.
MEN: doubled storage on
3U CompactPCI serial
The hard disk carrier board G503 for the first
time unites two HDDs or SSDs on just one
single 3U CompactPCI Serial card and fulfills
the requirements for growing data volumes
also in harsh environments. Designed to
work in an x86 system environment the G503
offers space for two 2.5” SATA HDDs or SSDs.
It delivers as much as four terabytes storage
capacity on just one slot based on the robust
and compact Eurocard form factor.
ADLINK: all-in-one embedded
Box PCs for infotainment
ADLINK introduced a new Industrial PC
product line with specialized features for
retail and gaming applications. The new line
is initially being launched with two highly
integrated box-PC models including the nec-
essary interfaces for most common peripheral
devices in addition to the intelligent API mid-
dleware simplifying application development.
The API middleware allows application devel-
opment without dependencies to the periph-
eral devices, a vast library of commonly used
peripherals is available.
Product News
