EtherCAT
Encyclopedia
EtherCAT - Ethernet
for Control Automation
Technology
- 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.
frame. Using one frame per node
per cycle therefore leads to low bandwidth
utilization
and thus to poor overall network performance. EtherCAT therefore takes a different approach, called "processing on the fly".
packet or frame is no longer received, then interpreted and copied as process data at every node. The EtherCAT slave devices read the data addressed to them while the telegram passes through the device. Similarly, input data are inserted while the telegram passes through. The frames are only delayed by a fraction of a microsecond
in each node, and many nodes - typically the entire network
- can be addressed with just one frame.
0x88a4. It may consist of several sub-datagram
s, each serving a particular memory area of the logic
al process image
s that can be up to 4 gigabyte
s in size. The data sequence is independent of the physical
order of the nodes in the network; addressing can be in any order. Broadcast
, multicast
and communication between slaves are possible and must be done by the master device. If IP routing
is required, the EtherCAT protocol can be inserted into UDP
/IP
datagrams. This also enables any control with Ethernet protocol stack to address EtherCAT systems.
s in the slave devices are not involved in the processing of the Ethernet packets to transfer the process images. All process data communication is handled in the slave controller hardware. Combined with the functional principle this makes EtherCAT a high performance distributed I/O system: Process data exchange with 1000 distributed digital
I/O takes about 30 µs, which is typical for a transfer of 125 byte
over 100Mb/s Ethernet. Data for and from 100 servo
axis can be updated with up to 10 kHz. Typical network update rates are 1–30 kHz, but EtherCAT can be used with slower cycle times, too, if the DMA load is too high on your PC
.
Ethernet physical layers, the EtherCAT slave controllers close an open port
automatically and return the Ethernet frame if no downstream
device is detected. Slave devices may have two or more ports. Due to these features EtherCAT can support almost any physical topology such as line, tree or star. The bus or line structure known from the fieldbusses thus also becomes available for Ethernet.
Also possible is the combination of line and branches or stubs: any EtherCAT device with three or more ports can act as junction, no additional switches are required. The classic switch-based Ethernet star topology can be used either with switches configured to forward traffic directly between ports, or with special slave devices: the switches are then located between the network master and the slave devices. The special slave device (remember standard slave devices don't have a MAC address) assembly attached to one switch port together forms an EtherCAT segment, which is either addressed via its MAC address or via port based VLAN
s.
Since 100BASE-TX Ethernet physical layer is used, the distance between any two nodes can be up to 100 m (300 ft). Up to 65535 devices can be connected per segment.
If an EtherCAT network is wired in ring configuration (requires two ports on the master device), it can provide cable redundancy.
standard. Therefore EtherCAT does not require a special hardware in the master device and can be implemented in software on any standard Ethernet MAC, even without dedicated communication coprocessor.
The typical process of establishing a distributed clock is initiated by the master by sending a broadcast to all slaves to a certain address. Upon reception of this message, all slaves will latch the value of their internal clock twice, once when the message is received and once when it returns (remember EtherCAT has a ring topology). The master can then read all latched values and calculate the delay for each slave. This process can be repeated as many times as required to reduce jitter
and average out values. Total delays are calculated for each slave depending on their position in the slave-ring and will be uploaded to an offset register. Finally the master issues a broadcast readwrite on the system clock, which will make the first slave the reference clock and forcing all other slaves to set their internal clock appropriately with the now known offset.
To keep the clocks synchronised after initialization, the master or slave must regularly send out the broadcast again to counter any effects of speed difference between the internal clocks of each slave. Each slave should adjust the speed of their internal clock or implement an internal correction mechanism whenever they have to adjust.
The system clock is specified as a 64 bit counter with a base unit of 1 ns starting at January 1, 2000, 0:00.
of EtherCAT, without influencing the lower layers. It is certified according to IEC 61508
and meets the requirements of Safety Integrity Level
(SIL) 3. Certified products using the Safety over EtherCAT protocol have been available since 2005.
, DeviceNet
, Profibus
) into EtherCAT networks gateway devices are available. Also other Ethernet protocols can be used in conjunction with EtherCAT: The Ethernet frames are tunneled via the EtherCAT protocol, which is the standard approach for internet applications (e.g. VPN, PPPoE (DSL) etc.). The EtherCAT network is fully transparent for the Ethernet device, and the real-time characteristics are not impaired since the master dictates exactly when the tunneled transfers are to occur and how much capacity of the 100Mb/s media the tunneled protocols can use. All internet technologies can therefore also be used in the EtherCAT environment: integrated web server, e-mail, FTP transfer etc.
MAC. Several vendors supply code for different operating systems. There are also several open and shared source implementations. For slave devices special EtherCAT slave controller chips are required in order to perform the "processing on the fly" principle. EtherCAT slave controllers are available as code for different FPGA types and are also available as ASIC
implementations.
(Germany). It was founded in November 2003 and has offices in Tokyo
(Japan), Beijing
(China), Seoul
(Korea), and Austin
, Tx (USA). As of June 2010, it has over 1350 member companies from 50 countries. The ETG considers itself to be a forum for end users from different sectors, and for machine manufacturers and suppliers of control technology with the aim of supporting and promoting EtherCAT. The ETG provides information about EtherCAT and its application, organizes technical training classes, has technical and marketing committees, and promotes EtherCAT on trade shows in major industrial markets.
) working groups for digital communication. The EtherCAT specification was published as IEC/PAS 62407 in 2005, which was removed end of 2007 since EtherCAT had been integrated into the international fieldbus standards IEC 61158 and IEC 61784-2 as well as into the drive profile standard IEC 61800-7. These IEC standards have been approved unanimously in September and October 2007 and were published as IS (International Standards) later that year. In IEC 61800-7, EtherCAT is a standardized communication technology for the SERCOS and CANopen
drive profiles. EtherCAT is also part of ISO 15745-4, the standard for XML
device description. Furthermore, SEMI
has added EtherCAT to its standards portfolio (E54.20) and approved the technology for usage in semiconductor and flat panel display manufacturing equipment. In April 2010, Edition 2 of IEC 61784-3 was accepted, which contains the Safety over EtherCAT Protocol. In September 2008, the EtherCAT Installation Profile was submitted to IEC 61784-5.
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Ethernet
Ethernet is a family of computer networking technologies for local area networks commercially introduced in 1980. Standardized in IEEE 802.3, Ethernet has largely replaced competing wired LAN technologies....
for Control Automation
Automation
Automation is the use of control systems and information technologies to reduce the need for human work in the production of goods and services. In the scope of industrialization, automation is a step beyond mechanization...
Technology
Technology
Technology is the making, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques, crafts, systems or methods of organization in order to solve a problem or perform a specific function. It can also refer to the collection of such tools, machinery, and procedures. The word technology comes ;...
- is an open high performance Ethernet-based fieldbus
Fieldbus
Fieldbus is the name of a family of industrial computer network protocols used for real-time distributed control, now standardized as IEC 61158....
system. The development goal of EtherCAT was to apply Ethernet to automation applications
Application software
Application software, also known as an application or an "app", is computer software designed to help the user to perform specific tasks. Examples include enterprise software, accounting software, office suites, graphics software and media players. Many application programs deal principally with...
which require short data
Data
The term data refers to qualitative or quantitative attributes of a variable or set of variables. Data are typically the results of measurements and can be the basis of graphs, images, or observations of a set of variables. Data are often viewed as the lowest level of abstraction from which...
update times (also called cycle times) with low communication
Communication
Communication is the activity of conveying meaningful information. Communication requires a sender, a message, and an intended recipient, although the receiver need not be present or aware of the sender's intent to communicate at the time of communication; thus communication can occur across vast...
jitter
Jitter
Jitter is the undesired deviation from true periodicity of an assumed periodic signal in electronics and telecommunications, often in relation to a reference clock source. Jitter may be observed in characteristics such as the frequency of successive pulses, the signal amplitude, or phase of...
(for synchronization
Data synchronization
Data synchronization is the process of establishing consistency among data from a source to a target data storage and vice versa and the continuous harmonization of the data over time. It is fundamental to a wide variety of applications, including file synchronization and mobile device...
purposes) and low hardware
Hardware
Hardware is a general term for equipment such as keys, locks, hinges, latches, handles, wire, chains, plumbing supplies, tools, utensils, cutlery and machine parts. Household hardware is typically sold in hardware stores....
costs.
Introduction
Typical automation networks are characterized by short data length per node, typically less than the minimum payload of an EthernetEthernet
Ethernet is a family of computer networking technologies for local area networks commercially introduced in 1980. Standardized in IEEE 802.3, Ethernet has largely replaced competing wired LAN technologies....
frame. Using one frame per node
Node (computer science)
A node is a record consisting of one or more fields that are links to other nodes, and a data field. The link and data fields are often implemented by pointers or references although it is also quite common for the data to be embedded directly in the node. Nodes are used to build linked, often...
per cycle therefore leads to low bandwidth
Bandwidth (computing)
In computer networking and computer science, bandwidth, network bandwidth, data bandwidth, or digital bandwidth is a measure of available or consumed data communication resources expressed in bits/second or multiples of it .Note that in textbooks on wireless communications, modem data transmission,...
utilization
Utilization
Utilization is a statistical concept as well as a primary business measure for the rental industry.-Queueing theory:In queueing theory, utilization is the proportion of the system's resources which is used by the traffic which arrives at it. It should be strictly less than one for the system to...
and thus to poor overall network performance. EtherCAT therefore takes a different approach, called "processing on the fly".
Functional principle
With EtherCAT, the EthernetEthernet
Ethernet is a family of computer networking technologies for local area networks commercially introduced in 1980. Standardized in IEEE 802.3, Ethernet has largely replaced competing wired LAN technologies....
packet or frame is no longer received, then interpreted and copied as process data at every node. The EtherCAT slave devices read the data addressed to them while the telegram passes through the device. Similarly, input data are inserted while the telegram passes through. The frames are only delayed by a fraction of a microsecond
Microsecond
A microsecond is an SI unit of time equal to one millionth of a second. Its symbol is µs.A microsecond is equal to 1000 nanoseconds or 1/1000 millisecond...
in each node, and many nodes - typically the entire network
Computer network
A computer network, often simply referred to as a network, is a collection of hardware components and computers interconnected by communication channels that allow sharing of resources and information....
- can be addressed with just one frame.
Protocol
The EtherCAT protocol is optimised for process data and is transported directly within the standard IEEE 802.3 Ethernet frame using EthertypeEtherType
EtherType is a two-octet field in an Ethernet frame. It is used to indicate which protocol is encapsulated in the PayLoad of an Ethernet Frame. This field was first defined by the Ethernet II framing networking standard, and later adapted for the IEEE 802.3 Ethernet networking standard.EtherType...
0x88a4. It may consist of several sub-datagram
Datagram
A datagram is a basic transfer unit associated with a packet-switched network in which the delivery, arrival time, and order are not guaranteed....
s, each serving a particular memory area of the logic
Logic
In philosophy, Logic is the formal systematic study of the principles of valid inference and correct reasoning. Logic is used in most intellectual activities, but is studied primarily in the disciplines of philosophy, mathematics, semantics, and computer science...
al process image
Image
An image is an artifact, for example a two-dimensional picture, that has a similar appearance to some subject—usually a physical object or a person.-Characteristics:...
s that can be up to 4 gigabyte
Gigabyte
The gigabyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information storage. The prefix giga means 109 in the International System of Units , therefore 1 gigabyte is...
s in size. The data sequence is independent of the physical
Physical
Physical may refer to:*Body, the physical structure of an organism**Human body, the physical structure of a human*Physical abuse, abuse involving contact intended to cause feelings of intimidation, injury, or other physical suffering or bodily harm...
order of the nodes in the network; addressing can be in any order. Broadcast
Broadcast
Broadcast or Broadcasting may refer to:* Broadcasting, the transmission of audio and video signals* Broadcast, an individual television program or radio program* Broadcast , an English electronic music band...
, multicast
Multicast
In computer networking, multicast is the delivery of a message or information to a group of destination computers simultaneously in a single transmission from the source creating copies automatically in other network elements, such as routers, only when the topology of the network requires...
and communication between slaves are possible and must be done by the master device. If IP routing
Routing
Routing is the process of selecting paths in a network along which to send network traffic. Routing is performed for many kinds of networks, including the telephone network , electronic data networks , and transportation networks...
is required, the EtherCAT protocol can be inserted into UDP
User Datagram Protocol
The User Datagram Protocol is one of the core members of the Internet Protocol Suite, the set of network protocols used for the Internet. With UDP, computer applications can send messages, in this case referred to as datagrams, to other hosts on an Internet Protocol network without requiring...
/IP
Internet Protocol
The Internet Protocol is the principal communications protocol used for relaying datagrams across an internetwork using the Internet Protocol Suite...
datagrams. This also enables any control with Ethernet protocol stack to address EtherCAT systems.
Performance
Short cycle times can be achieved since the host microprocessorMicroprocessor
A microprocessor incorporates the functions of a computer's central processing unit on a single integrated circuit, or at most a few integrated circuits. It is a multipurpose, programmable device that accepts digital data as input, processes it according to instructions stored in its memory, and...
s in the slave devices are not involved in the processing of the Ethernet packets to transfer the process images. All process data communication is handled in the slave controller hardware. Combined with the functional principle this makes EtherCAT a high performance distributed I/O system: Process data exchange with 1000 distributed digital
Digital
A digital system is a data technology that uses discrete values. By contrast, non-digital systems use a continuous range of values to represent information...
I/O takes about 30 µs, which is typical for a transfer of 125 byte
Byte
The byte is a unit of digital information in computing and telecommunications that most commonly consists of eight bits. Historically, a byte was the number of bits used to encode a single character of text in a computer and for this reason it is the basic addressable element in many computer...
over 100Mb/s Ethernet. Data for and from 100 servo
Servomechanism
thumb|right|200px|Industrial servomotorThe grey/green cylinder is the [[Brush |brush-type]] [[DC motor]]. The black section at the bottom contains the [[Epicyclic gearing|planetary]] [[Reduction drive|reduction gear]], and the black object on top of the motor is the optical [[rotary encoder]] for...
axis can be updated with up to 10 kHz. Typical network update rates are 1–30 kHz, but EtherCAT can be used with slower cycle times, too, if the DMA load is too high on your PC
Personal computer
A personal computer is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator...
.
Topology
Using full-duplexDuplex (telecommunications)
A duplex communication system is a system composed of two connected parties or devices that can communicate with one another in both directions. The term multiplexing is used when describing communication between more than two parties or devices....
Ethernet physical layers, the EtherCAT slave controllers close an open port
Computer port (software)
In computer programming, port has a wide range of meanings.A software port is a virtual/logical data connection that can be used by programs to exchange data directly, instead of going through a file or other temporary storage location...
automatically and return the Ethernet frame if no downstream
Downstream (computer science)
In a telecommunications network or computer network, downstream refers to data sent from a network service provider to a customer.Although the best voiceband modems are called 56 kbit/s modems, downstream speeds can be limited to a few tens of kilobits per second with even lower upstream speeds...
device is detected. Slave devices may have two or more ports. Due to these features EtherCAT can support almost any physical topology such as line, tree or star. The bus or line structure known from the fieldbusses thus also becomes available for Ethernet.
Also possible is the combination of line and branches or stubs: any EtherCAT device with three or more ports can act as junction, no additional switches are required. The classic switch-based Ethernet star topology can be used either with switches configured to forward traffic directly between ports, or with special slave devices: the switches are then located between the network master and the slave devices. The special slave device (remember standard slave devices don't have a MAC address) assembly attached to one switch port together forms an EtherCAT segment, which is either addressed via its MAC address or via port based VLAN
Virtual LAN
A virtual local area network, virtual LAN or VLAN, is a group of hosts with a common set of requirements that communicate as if they were attached to the same broadcast domain, regardless of their physical location...
s.
Since 100BASE-TX Ethernet physical layer is used, the distance between any two nodes can be up to 100 m (300 ft). Up to 65535 devices can be connected per segment.
If an EtherCAT network is wired in ring configuration (requires two ports on the master device), it can provide cable redundancy.
Synchronization
For synchronization a distributed clock mechanism is applied, which leads to very low jitters of significantly less than 1 µs even if the communication cycle jitters, which is equivalent to the IEEE 1588 Precision Time ProtocolPrecision Time Protocol
The Precision Time Protocol is a protocol used to synchronize clocks throughout a computer network. On a local area network it achieves clock accuracy in the sub-microsecond range, making it suitable for measurement and control systems....
standard. Therefore EtherCAT does not require a special hardware in the master device and can be implemented in software on any standard Ethernet MAC, even without dedicated communication coprocessor.
The typical process of establishing a distributed clock is initiated by the master by sending a broadcast to all slaves to a certain address. Upon reception of this message, all slaves will latch the value of their internal clock twice, once when the message is received and once when it returns (remember EtherCAT has a ring topology). The master can then read all latched values and calculate the delay for each slave. This process can be repeated as many times as required to reduce jitter
Jitter
Jitter is the undesired deviation from true periodicity of an assumed periodic signal in electronics and telecommunications, often in relation to a reference clock source. Jitter may be observed in characteristics such as the frequency of successive pulses, the signal amplitude, or phase of...
and average out values. Total delays are calculated for each slave depending on their position in the slave-ring and will be uploaded to an offset register. Finally the master issues a broadcast readwrite on the system clock, which will make the first slave the reference clock and forcing all other slaves to set their internal clock appropriately with the now known offset.
To keep the clocks synchronised after initialization, the master or slave must regularly send out the broadcast again to counter any effects of speed difference between the internal clocks of each slave. Each slave should adjust the speed of their internal clock or implement an internal correction mechanism whenever they have to adjust.
The system clock is specified as a 64 bit counter with a base unit of 1 ns starting at January 1, 2000, 0:00.
Device profiles
The device profiles describe the application parameters and the functional behaviour of the devices including the device class-specific state machines. For many device classes, fieldbus technology already offers reliable device profiles, for example for I/O devices, drives or valves. EtherCAT supports both the CANopen device profile family as well as the drive profile known as the Sercos drive profile. Since the application view does not change when migrating from CANopen or Sercos, this assists users and device manufacturers alike.Functional safety
The protocol enhancement called Safety over EtherCAT enables safety-related communication and control communication on the same network. The safety protocol is based on the application layerApplication layer
The Internet protocol suite and the Open Systems Interconnection model of computer networking each specify a group of protocols and methods identified by the name application layer....
of EtherCAT, without influencing the lower layers. It is certified according to IEC 61508
IEC 61508
IEC 61508 is an international standard of rules applied in industry. It is titled "Functional Safety of Electrical/Electronic/Programmable Electronic Safety-related Systems"....
and meets the requirements of Safety Integrity Level
Safety Integrity Level
Safety Integrity Level is defined as a relative level of risk-reduction provided by a safety function, or to specify a target level of risk reduction. In simple terms, SIL is a measurement of performance required for a Safety Instrumented Function ....
(SIL) 3. Certified products using the Safety over EtherCAT protocol have been available since 2005.
Gateways
For integration of existing fieldbus components (e.g., CANopenCANopen
CANopen is a communication protocol and device profile specification for embedded systems used in automation. In terms of the OSI model, CANopen implements the layers above and including the network layer. The CANopen standard consists of an addressing scheme, several small communication protocols...
, DeviceNet
DeviceNet
DeviceNet is a network system used in the automation industry to interconnect control devices for data exchange. It uses Controller Area Network as the backbone technology and defines an application layer to cover a range of device profiles...
, Profibus
Profibus
PROFIBUS is a standard for field bus communication in automation technology and was first promoted in 1989 by BMBF...
) into EtherCAT networks gateway devices are available. Also other Ethernet protocols can be used in conjunction with EtherCAT: The Ethernet frames are tunneled via the EtherCAT protocol, which is the standard approach for internet applications (e.g. VPN, PPPoE (DSL) etc.). The EtherCAT network is fully transparent for the Ethernet device, and the real-time characteristics are not impaired since the master dictates exactly when the tunneled transfers are to occur and how much capacity of the 100Mb/s media the tunneled protocols can use. All internet technologies can therefore also be used in the EtherCAT environment: integrated web server, e-mail, FTP transfer etc.
Implementation
Master can be implemented in software on any standard EthernetEthernet
Ethernet is a family of computer networking technologies for local area networks commercially introduced in 1980. Standardized in IEEE 802.3, Ethernet has largely replaced competing wired LAN technologies....
MAC. Several vendors supply code for different operating systems. There are also several open and shared source implementations. For slave devices special EtherCAT slave controller chips are required in order to perform the "processing on the fly" principle. EtherCAT slave controllers are available as code for different FPGA types and are also available as ASIC
ASIC
ASIC may refer to:* Application-specific integrated circuit, an integrated circuit developed for a particular use, as opposed to a customised general-purpose device.* ASIC programming language, a dialect of BASIC...
implementations.
EtherCAT Technology Group
The EtherCAT Technology Group (ETG) is international user and vendor organization headquartered in NurembergNuremberg
Nuremberg[p] is a city in the German state of Bavaria, in the administrative region of Middle Franconia. Situated on the Pegnitz river and the Rhine–Main–Danube Canal, it is located about north of Munich and is Franconia's largest city. The population is 505,664...
(Germany). It was founded in November 2003 and has offices in Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
(Japan), Beijing
Beijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
(China), Seoul
Seoul
Seoul , officially the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea. A megacity with a population of over 10 million, it is the largest city proper in the OECD developed world...
(Korea), and Austin
Austin
Austin is the capital of the U.S. state of Texas.Austin may also refer to:-In the United States:*Austin, Arkansas*Austin, Colorado*Austin, Chicago, Illinois*Austin, Indiana*Austin, Minnesota*Austin, Nevada*Austin, Oregon...
, Tx (USA). As of June 2010, it has over 1350 member companies from 50 countries. The ETG considers itself to be a forum for end users from different sectors, and for machine manufacturers and suppliers of control technology with the aim of supporting and promoting EtherCAT. The ETG provides information about EtherCAT and its application, organizes technical training classes, has technical and marketing committees, and promotes EtherCAT on trade shows in major industrial markets.
International standardization
The EtherCAT Technology Group is an official liaison partner of the IEC (International Electrotechnical CommissionInternational Electrotechnical Commission
The International Electrotechnical Commission is a non-profit, non-governmental international standards organization that prepares and publishes International Standards for all electrical, electronic and related technologies – collectively known as "electrotechnology"...
) working groups for digital communication. The EtherCAT specification was published as IEC/PAS 62407 in 2005, which was removed end of 2007 since EtherCAT had been integrated into the international fieldbus standards IEC 61158 and IEC 61784-2 as well as into the drive profile standard IEC 61800-7. These IEC standards have been approved unanimously in September and October 2007 and were published as IS (International Standards) later that year. In IEC 61800-7, EtherCAT is a standardized communication technology for the SERCOS and CANopen
CANopen
CANopen is a communication protocol and device profile specification for embedded systems used in automation. In terms of the OSI model, CANopen implements the layers above and including the network layer. The CANopen standard consists of an addressing scheme, several small communication protocols...
drive profiles. EtherCAT is also part of ISO 15745-4, the standard for XML
XML
Extensible Markup Language is a set of rules for encoding documents in machine-readable form. It is defined in the XML 1.0 Specification produced by the W3C, and several other related specifications, all gratis open standards....
device description. Furthermore, SEMI
Semi
Semi- is a Latin prefix to a verb, noun, or adjective meaning "half". Some compounds formed with it are often abbreviated to simply "semi" in appropriate contexts:...
has added EtherCAT to its standards portfolio (E54.20) and approved the technology for usage in semiconductor and flat panel display manufacturing equipment. In April 2010, Edition 2 of IEC 61784-3 was accepted, which contains the Safety over EtherCAT Protocol. In September 2008, the EtherCAT Installation Profile was submitted to IEC 61784-5.
Applications
Typical application fields for EtherCAT are machine controls (e.g. semiconductor tools, metal forming, packaging, injection molding, assembly systems, printing machines, robotics).External links
- EtherCAT Technology Group
- Simple Open Ethercat Master, an open sourceOpen sourceThe term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...
library from T.U.EindhovenEindhoven University of TechnologyThe ' is a university of technology located in Eindhoven, Netherlands. The motto of the university is: Mens agitat molem . The university was the second of its kind in the Netherlands, only Delft University of Technology existed previously. Until mid-1980 it was known as the... - Open Source EtherCAT Master for Linux/Real Time Kernel
- beckhoff.com - EtherCAT description
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