EtherCAT Implementation

The EtherCAT***EtherCAT is an open, high-performance Ethernet-based fieldbus system. The development goal of EtherCAT was to apply Ethernet to automation applications which require short data update times (also called cycle times) with low communication jitter (for synchronization purposes) and low hardware costs Technology was developed with very low cost devices in mind, like I/O terminals, sensors, and embedded controllers. EtherCAT only uses standard EthernetEthernet is a large, diverse family of frame-based computer networking technologies that operate at many speeds for local area networks (LANs) frames according to IEEE 802.3. These frames are sent by the master device, and the slave devices extract and/or insert data on the fly. Thus EtherCAT uses standard Ethernet MACs, where they really make sense: in the master device. EtherCAT slave controllers are also used where such dedicated chips really make sense: in the slave device, where they handle the process data protocol in hardware and provide maximum real-time performance regardless of the local processing power or software quality.

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