TI Licenses EtherCAT Technology

Texas Instruments Inc. (TI) has demonstrated its commitment to the industrial market and by being the first semiconductor company to license Ethernet for Control Automation Technology (EtherCAT) for its ARM-based embedded processors. This new, ground-breaking industrial Ethernet technology will be featured in TI’s upcoming Sitara ARM microprocessors (MPUs) planned for the beginning of the fourth quarter of 2011 and in TI’s C6-Integra DSP + ARM processors beginning in 2012.

EtherCAT technology, based on the principle of fast processing on the fly, improves speed and efficiency in industrial systems. It also improves overall industrial application performance with shorter reaction times, enabling increased operational efficiency.

EtherCAT uses the standard IEEE 802.3 frames and physical layer. No external switches or hubs are necessary because the EtherCAT slave controllers forward the frames automatically. Auto-configuration of the EtherCAT technology is also supported, and no manual address setting is required as well as network tuning.

“The EtherCAT Protocol technology sets new standards for the real-time performance and flexibility that are critical for TI’s embedded ARM-based devices geared toward the industrial market. With its popularity today in industrial drive and input/output applications, EtherCAT is used to allow master and slave controllers to communicate with each other without a host computer in high-noise industrial environments,” said Ram Sathappan, industrial automation manager, TI. “The TI approach to EtherCAT with the programmable real-time unit (PRU) on TI’s Sitara ARM MPUs and C6-Integra DSP + ARM processors allows for flexible implementation that can more easily adapt as industrial standards evolve over time.”

Texas Instruments