Xilinx Spartan-6 FPGA First in Industry to Support MECHATROLINK-III Interface for Low-cost, High-speed Factory Automation Networks

MECHATROLINK is an open network communication system for motion control which connects the components of factory automation (FA) systems--such as servo motors, inverters, and stepping motors--with a controller. MECHATROLINK assures high-speed communication and synchronization to achieve a fast, high-performance, and highly reliable system; makes the system smaller and expandable; and reduces wiring requirements. Products accredited by the MECHATROLINK Members Association totaling approximately 1.7 million nodes for semiconductor and LCD production equipment, food wrapping equipment, and light-emitting diode (LED) production equipment have been shipped and are operating in Japan and around the world.

The IP core supplied by Tokyo Electron Device is compliant with the MECHATROLINK-III standard to support a data transfer speed of 100Mbps that's compatible with the Ethernet standard, cycle time of 31.25microns-64ms, and capable of connecting up to 62 equipment nodes, the control of which can be fully synchronized. Previous development of systems compliant with MECHATROLINK-III used ASICs for a master/slave configuration, but Tokyo Electron Device will supply a MECHATROLINK-III-compliant IP core for the Xilinx Spartan-6 family. Use of the IP core enables separate arrangements of master and slave functions if required. This solution makes the system more compact, faster, and highly integrated, and reduces system costs compared with using ASICs. It also takes advantage of the flexibility of FPGAs to provide substantial support for developing systems that combine a broad range of equipment more efficiently.

We expect MECHATROLINK to spread faster now that an IP core compliant with the MECHATROLINK-III standard is being made available for Xilinx's Spartan-6 FPGA, said MECHATROLINK Members Association General Manager Takeshi Tanaka. Users will gain considerable benefit from the combination of the openness of MECHATROLINK and flexibility of FPGAs, which will enable them to use a common platform with MECHATROLINK specifications and improve performance while reducing costs.

Factory automation is a key growth area for Xilinx as more developers turn to FPGAs to overcome the high-cost of chip development and still meet their high-compute performance requirements, said Mark Jensen, Director, ISM Vertical Markets at Xilinx. We are confident that the high-performance, low-cost Spartan-6 FPGA family will offer users of MECHATROLINK-III new possibilities for innovation in factory automation applications.