Wireless chip for industrial automation applications

Rabbit, a Digi International brand, has launched the Rabbit 6000—the industry’s first embedded wireless communications and control system-on-chip (SoC) ideal for industrial automation applications. The Rabbit 6000 combines wireless communications and an industrial control feature set on a single chip to reduce the time-to-market of network-enabled industrial devices. Rabbit will release versions of its popular MiniCore series of easy-to-use, ultra-compact, low-profile, low-cost networking modules based on this new processor.

According to Larry Kraft, Senior Vice President of Global Sales and Marketing, Digi International, the chip expands the company’s MiniCore series, which now includes modules designed specifically for flexible networking and control of industrial devices. “The networking speed performance of the new MiniCore modules will be six times faster than previous MiniCore modules, and the already low power requirements will be reduced,” he said.

The Rabbit 6000 features integrated 10/100 Base-T Ethernet and secure 802.11a/b/g with WPA2 support for security. It also offers an industrial control feature set that includes pulse width modulation (PWM), pulse position modulation (PPM) and quadrature decoder inputs for efficient industrial motor control, and an on board ADC with 12-bit resolution to enable measurement of sensor data such as water, temperature and humidity. It also features USB 2.0 full-speed host and two on-board Flexible Interface Modules (FIMs) that enable further protocol support such as CANbus, Secure Digital (SD) and Secure Digital Input Output (SDIO).

The Rabbit 6000 comes in a 17x17x1.3mm, 292-ball BGA package. Other key specifications include clock speeds up to 200MHz; 1MB internal DRAM and 32kB battery backable SRAM; operating current of 372µA/MHz at 1.2V/3.3V (Wi-Fi and Ethernet Disabled); and operating temperature range of -40°C to 85°C. Early adopter MiniCore development kits are now available.

Rabbit
Captions

Figure 1: The Rabbit 6000 functional block diagram

Figure 2: The Rabbit 6000 raises the industry standard as the first wireless processor to provide a rich set of industrial embedded control features.