IRT device evaluation kit allows for prompt development

Renesas’ 'Connect it! - TPS-1 Solution Kit' facilitates integration for customers developing solutions for Europe’s dominant industrial Ethernet market and helps them get their products to market faster.

The comprehensive Solution Kit comes with the following components:

• TPS-1 Solution Kit board
• IRT-capable PROFINET IRT device stack for TPS-1
• PROFINET Controller software for PC
• PROFINET Configurator as engineering tool
• TPS-1 Firmware Updater for firmware updates in the field
• TPS-1 Configurator

This allows customers to develop a PROFINET reference solution quickly, as the kit includes not only the hardware and the royalty-free PROFINET IRT stack, but also all the required software tools and drivers to manage the PROFINET gateway solution in all development and production stages. This extensive set of components, combined with Renesas’ outstanding customer support, make the TPS-1 solution suitable for any PROFINET device.

Renesas developed its TPS-1 solution in co-operation with Siemens and Phoenix Contact. The TPS-1 PROFINET IRT device is continuously enhanced with new features by the Phoenix Contact group, ensuring a high quality stack implementation with a feature set that is always up-to-date. In combination with the unique low power consumption, easy integration options, small board space requirements and robust silicon implementation, it ensures performance and future-proof extensibility.

The major hardware components of the TPS-1 Solution Kit include the TPS-1 itself, a V850ES/JH3-H CPU as host and a Complex PLD (CPLD) that holds everything together. Although the CPLD is not required from the system point of view, it gives customers the flexibility to connect alternative CPUs or to operate the TPS-1 in the pure, no-host IO mode with the same board hardware.

On the network side, the Solution Kit offers standard 100BASE-TX or optional FX connections, while on the system side it provides access to the TPS-1 via its I/Os, the V850ES and its built-in peripherals, or any other CPU that can be connected to the starter kit board using the RSK interface. Additionally, the Solution Kit is equipped with a multi-purpose LCD display along with multiple connectors and test points. The interfaces provided include UART, USB device, AD/DA and GPIOs that are configurable for alternative I/O functions.