FPGA-Based Industrial Ethernet Implementations

For implementing Industrial Ethernet controllers and devices Softing is offering IP Cores for Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs). This offer is based on a pre-engineered reference design that reduces the time-to-market to a minimum. The Softing reference design includes the required hardware and software for field device implementation and is the result of decades of experience in industrial communication.

The IP Cores combine a future-proof design with a flexible implementation that can be optimally adapted to meet individual customer requirements. They can be incorporated into an FPGA together with customer-specific applications, resulting in an efficient usage of the available resources. The Softing offering includes:

• Development and production of FPGA-based communication interfaces according to individual customer requirements
• Integration of PROFIBUS and Industrial Ethernet IP Cores in an FPGAon a customer hardware platform
• Integration workshopssupporting the customer to include the Industrial Ethernet IP Cores in an FPGA at a customer hardware platform by himself
• Application integrationandimplementation of parts of the application(e.g. profiles, web server)

Individual Industrial Ethernet Implementations

For providing a maximum amount of communication flexibility, the various Softing Industrial Ethernet protocol stacks can be ported to the individual customer-specific hardware platform. This process is supported by a specific porting layer, combining all relevant parts of the protocol stack, which refer to specific processor, operating system and memory settings. The rest of the protocol stack do not require any target-specific adaption and just need to be compiled using the appropriate engineering environment.

Softing is offering performing the porting of the individual Industrial Ethernet protocol stacks to the customer-specific hardware platform. As an alternative, a porting workshop is available, enabling the customer to perform the desired porting by himself. In addition, Softing also offers additional communication tools for implementation at specific customer platforms. This way, for instance, can be used for implementing individual configuration capabilities.

Certification Support for Industrial Ethernet Devices

For all types of certification issues Softing customers can benefit from the available Industrial Ethernet know-how. For instance, Softing can perform individual pre-certification tests for customer-specific Industrial Ethernet implementations based on the actual test systems of the various Industrial Ethernet standards.