Promwad Joined the EtherCAT Group

We are increasing our expertise in industrial networking: Promwad has joined the EtherCAT technology group to create hardware and software solutions for electronics based on EtherCAT. This standard is used in industrial automation and robotics for real-time distributed control.

What is the EtherCAT Group

The EtherCAT Group is an Industrial Ethernet organization with more than 6,500 members: equipment manufacturers, technology suppliers, and EtherCAT users.

What is EtherCAT

EtherCAT is a high-performance industrial Ethernet-based communication protocol supporting various network topologies. A key feature of EtherCAT is its high bandwidth and short response time (so called “processing on the fly”). Also, EtherCAT complies with such association standards as SEMI, IEC, and ISO.

Benefits of EtherCAT Group membership for our customers

Promwad and its clients receive many benefits for the implementation of custom software and electronics development for industrial automation systems:

• access to documentation on the implementation of EtherCAT;
• use of the knowledge library, communication with developers on the forum, and up-to-date information on EtherCAT developments;
• influence future enhancements to EtherCAT technology;
• participate in technical groups, and hence improve EtherCAT technology in demand on real customer projects.

^{XMC4800 Relax EtherCAT Kit, one of the platforms we use in our design projects. Photo courtesy of Infineon Technologies AG}

EtherCat implementation

EtherCAT projects can be implemented in 2 models: Master and Slave. Master-type projects can be implemented on any Ethernet MAC. 

We focus on slave devices. Data processing is then done in real-time using hardware-integrated EtherCAT slave controllers. Working on such projects, we use the following platforms and operating systems:

Platforms:

• XMC4800 (Infineon)
• Xilinx FPGA/SoC (Microblaze, ARM, RISC-V)
• AM572x, AM571x, AM437x, AM335x, AMIC11x, AMIC12x, AM654x (PRU-ICSS)
• STM32F4, STM32F7, STM32H7 (ST) plus LAN9252/LAN9253/LAN9254
• Intel FPGA (Altera) FPGA/SoC (NIOS II, RISC-V)

Operating systems:

• Linux (with/without RT-Preemption patch)
• Linux + Xenomai
• Linux + RTOS/Baremetal
• RTOS/Baremetal

We develop devices using EtherCAT, which are used in Robotics & Industrial Automation. Contact us if you plan to develop a device that supports this standard.