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| FieldbusDeviceNet, PROFIBUS, CANopen, ControlNet, EtherCAT, and other industrial communication protocols can be directly supported by INtime programs. Real-time applications written for the INtime environment have direct access to I/O and memory, giving you the flexibility necessary to build time-critical applications that require intimate interaction with hardware. Following are examples of fieldbus hardware that have software subsystems available directly from TenAsys or our partners and are provided as real-time drivers and/or libraries with APIs designed specifically to support their unique hardware. Industrial I/O interfacesDeviceNet, PROFIBUS, CANopen, ControlNet, and other industrial communication protocols can be easily incorporated into INtime applications using either direct I/O or real-time device drivers with the Hilscher CIF line of industrial control I/O. GPIB (IEEE-488) bus accessReal-time applications can incorporate support for IEEE-488 (GPIB) peripherals when using the National Instruments PCI-GPIB and PCI-GPIB+ I/O cards. Support is provided in the form of a real-time shared library (.RSL) and header files (.H) that implement the NI-488.2 board-level API. The INtime implementation of the NI-488.2 board-level API (e.g., ibcmd, ibrd, ibwrt) is directly derived from, and fully compatible with, the National Instruments board-level API. A compatible subset of the National Instruments device-level API is also provided within the same real-time shared library. Existing applications written to use the NI-488.2 board-level DLL for Windows can be directly ported to the INtime environment for use with the INtime RSL. EtherCAT fieldbusProfimatics GmbH, an embedded system developer and TenAsys partner, has developed a real-time EtherCAT master for INtime. Their software allows you to utilize a standard Windows PC platform as the EtherCAT master in a deterministic EtherCAT fieldbus network. An EtherCAT fieldbus utilizes the speed and cost effectiveness of Ethernet hardware to implement a fieldbus network that provides greater performance than traditional fieldbus solutions. For example, 1000 distributed digital I/O points can be queried within 30µs, 200 analog values in 50µs, or 100 axes of motion can be controlled in 100µs. EtherCAT is particularly well suited for PC-based control technology. A PC-based system master requires no special plug-in card and can be implemented on any existing Ethernet controller. Please visit the Ethercat Technology Group website for detailed information regarding the EtherCAT fieldbus standard. |