Lattice Releases Sercos Iii Real-Time Industrial Ethernet Solution

Sercos is a digital bus that interconnects motion controls, drives, I/O, sensors and actuators for numerically controlled machines and systems. It is designed for the high-speed serial communication of standardized closed-loop real-time data over Industrial Ethernet. The Sercos III real-time Ethernet evaluation kit consists of two boards (FPGA module and base board), plus an optional expansion module. It is designed in particular for test implementations and performance measurements of Sercos III slave devices based on the SERCON100S slave IP core in combination with the LatticeMico32™ soft microprocessor and other optional system functions.

The FPGA module consists of a LatticeECP3-35 FPGA, 8 MB Flash and 8 MB DRAM. Due to its compact dimensions and its wide bus and I/O interface, the FPGA module can also be integrated as is into Sercos III slave devices. This saves cost and reduces the time to market for slave devices like I/O units or drives.

The base board has 16DI and 16DO, all with status LEDs, an RS232 interface, various switches and the standardized bi-color Sercos III diagnostic LED. The board is supplied with 24VDC or 5VDC. A socket for expansion modules allows the addition of more functions or interfaces, such as analog I/O.
The FPGA module is supported by the proven AUTOMATA Sercos III slave communication stack and test tools such as a master simulator for Windows XP. A sample implementation of the Sercos III I/O profile (FSP-I/O) is available.

“FPGAs offer a flexible platform for the diverse requirements of industrial automation. The flexibility, scalability, low cost and low power of the innovative LatticeECP3 devices provide an ideal platform for innovative and cost-efficient automation products,” said Peter Lutz, managing director of Sercos International.

“The Sercos interface allows drive and control manufacturers to create intelligent digital drives with vastly improved capabilities and flexibility,” said Niladri Roy, Senior Manager for Vertical Markets at Lattice. “The availability of Sercos III on the LatticeECP3 FPGA family provides a low cost, low power FPGA-based alternative for a wide spectrum of customers who need to implement flexible industrial networking solutions.”