Xilinx and Texas Instruments Powerlink industrial networking kit

An ethernet Powerlink industrial networking kit that delivers a total development platform for industrial networking applications has been jointly developed by Xilinx and Texas Instruments with supporting technology from Austria’s B&R Automation.

The Spartan-6 FPGA-based kit delivers an implementation of the Powerlink protocol (controlled node), development tools and other design resources to help developers of industrial networking applications build their systems quickly at the lowest cost.

It is an industrial networking protocol standard that was first developed in 2001 by B&R Automation. Today, the standard has been open-sourced and is managed by the ethernet Powerlink Standardisation Group.

The kit includes two ethernet DP83630 Phyter transceivers from Texas. There are IEEE 1588 precision time protocol tranceivers that deliver a high level of precision clock synchronisation for real-time industrial connectivity.

PDI (parallel digital interface) connectors are also included to extend connectivity to interface with the industrial components or devices actually controlled.