01 May 2012
Components for this king system include a high-performance CPU – a Beckhoff Industrial PC with control software to match – TwinCAT 3; ultra-fast I/O components – with 1 µs latency; and EtherCAT. “When we first presented EtherCAT in 2003, the performance of this fieldbus ahead of the controller capability of the time. With TwinCAT 3 and the current IPC CPUs the gap is closing, although it is still not possible to foresee when we will be able to make the maximum EtherCAT data throughput fully usable for machine controllers”, said Dr. Dirk Janssen, manager of software development at Beckhoff and one of the inventors of EtherCAT. “With the 12.5 µs presentation we are showing what the system is capable of together with our EtherCAT Terminals. “A fast fieldbus only becomes a fast control system with a capable controller and ultra-fast I/O components. And only with EtherCAT can the highest performance of the fieldbus be implemented continuously through to the I/O signals: All technologies that rely on bus couplers with a separate, local I/O bus suffer here from system-related disadvantages.”
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