XMOS Announce New Modbus And CANopen Industrial Communication Solutions

These new soft peripherals allows designers to integrate these commonly-required protocols in their xCORE-based embedded designs, alongside a wide range of other industrial communications standards, and timing-predictable, jitter-free control code. Embedded designers can build systems with the exact combination of interfaces and control capabilities needed for their applications thanks to this unique configuration flexibility.

The XMOS xSOFTip peripheral library has been expanded with the addition of CANopen and Modbus (available from XMOS in both Ethernet/TCP and serial/RTU variants). The XMOS xSOFTip peripheral library includes CANbus, RS485 and LIN, as well as standard and time-stamped Ethernet, both of which are making rapid inroads in industrial markets. XMOS provides everything developers need to rapidly create a broad range of industrial products: industrial serial bus I/O sliceCARD, the modular sliceKIT development system, and associated xTIMEcomposer Studio development tools.

xCORE is perfectly suited for demanding applications which require distributed intelligence and communication over real-time networks, and that need to close multiple asynchronous control loops in real time. The features and functions of an RTOS are delivered by xCORE devices in hardware blocks within the multicore architecture. They therefore offer the ability to implement timing-and-latency-critical control functions with flexible and time-sensitive communications capabilities.

XMOS offers multiple other xSOFTip blocks including USB, real-time Ethernet, HMI functions, and motor and motion control. Therefore everything from simple industrial sensors and actuators to protocol bridges, complex motor controllers, and high-performance PLCs are enabled by the XMOS xCORE multicore microcontroller.

“The serial fieldbus and industrial Ethernet markets are highly diversified,” commented Paul Neil, VP Product Management, XMOS. “xCORE is the only platform that allows embedded designers to choose the exact set of interfaces and control capabilities required for their application, while working in an easy-to-use C-based programming environment. Our customers have the freedom to combine communications interfaces and protocols, jitter-free and timing-deterministic control and high-performance DSP for complex control loops; and that freedom means they can create products that would otherwise be impossible to build.”