Series 11 – Episode 7 – How Single Pair Ethernet will transform IIoT at the Edge

Microchip’s Single Pair Ethernet offering is transforming IIoT at the Edge and higher-speed applications.

Single Pair Ethernet is a point-to-point network technology that uses a single twisted pair of copper wires to transmit data over a network. It is an alternative to traditional Ethernet, which uses four pairs of wires, and is designed to reduce costs and make long-distance wiring easier. Single Pair Ethernet offers speeds of up to 10Gbps, with potential for future upgrades to 25Gbps or higher.

Talking about the benefits of SPE, Jones said: “[It’s] simple, we have less wires. So, it reduces the cost, the weight and also installation wiring complexities. And generally, most applications will benefit from at least one if not all three of those advantages over traditional Ethernet.”

Microchip has recently announced four industrial-grade SPE products that will help fulfil SPE’s promise, from 10BASE-T1S MAC-PHYs that more easily connect edge IIoT devices to the Cloud, to industrial versions of its 100BASE-T1 Time Sensitive Networking (TSN) Ethernet PHY transceivers and switches that enable higher-speed applications across far-reaching Ethernet networks.

Microchip’s new LAN8650 and LAN8651 10BASE-T1S MAC-PHY Ethernet Controllers with Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI) simplify the implementation of zonal architectures by enabling basic MCUs, rather than higher-level MCUs with a Media Access Controller (MAC), to be used when creating sensors, actuators, and other devices for the edge of OT and IT networks. These low-speed devices do not need their own communication system, and Microchip’s MAC-PHYs connect them into a standard Ethernet system all the way to the cloud over simple twisted-pair wiring.

For industrial applications that require higher bandwidth, designers can use MCUs with an integrated Ethernet MAC. Microchip now offers an industrial-grade version of its LAN8770 100BASE-T1 Ethernet PHY Transceiver that provides 100Mbps transmit and receive capability over a single Unshielded Twisted Pair (UTP) cable.

Microchip’s SPE portfolio is enhanced with industrial-grade versions of its LAN937x and LAN938x Gigabit Ethernet TSN Switches with integrated 100BASE-T1 PHYs. These scalable, secure, and compact SPE switches include hardware time-stamping features for supporting IEEE 802.1AS (gPTP) and IEEE 1588v2 (PTP) time synchronisation, among other TSN functionality. Energy-efficiency features include ultra-deep-sleep power down with remote wake for battery applications.

Sostawa notes: “Interested parties can find a lot of valuable information on the Microchip.com website. Our product pages share many details to support designs with the new products. We will also have a demo at embedded world.”

To hear more about Microchip’s new product offering and much more, you can listen to Electronic Specifier’s interview with Mike Jones & Dr. Bernd Sostawa on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.