Microchip has announced the new LAN9252, a standalone EtherCAT slave controller with two 10/100 PHYs. Highly integrated devices' dual 10/100 Ethernet transceivers support fiber and copper and cable diagnostics.
LAN9252 supports traditional host bus and SPI / SQI communications, as well as independent digital I / O interfaces, giving system designers the ability to flexibly choose from a wide range of microcontrollers when implementing the real-time EtherCAT communication standard. In addition, for developers using EtherCAT in factory automation, process control, motor / motion control and Internet of Things (IoT) industrial Ethernet applications, LAN9252 reduces system complexity and reduces development costs.
Technology research company ARC Advisory Group predicts that the double-digit growth of Ethernet in industrial networks will be driven in part by emerging applications in the Internet of Things. Through the "instant" processing of EtherCAT technology and the use of standard Ethernet cables, Microchip's LAN9252 slave controller provides the high integration and cost optimization required for current and future industrial applications.
The LAN9252 EtherCAT slave controller is fully EtherCAT compliant and interoperable with all EtherCAT systems, including 4 KB of dual-port RAM (DPRAM) and three fieldbus memory management units (FMMU). LAN9252 also has cable diagnostic support, enabling field service technicians to quickly and efficiently diagnose line faults and provide fiber optic connections. The EtherCAT slave controller is available in commercial, industrial and extended industrial temperature ranges and is available in low pin count and small size QFN and QFP-EP packages. To support the development of LAN9252, two Microchip evaluation boards supporting various system architectures have also been announced. Nowadays. These hardware systems demonstrate how to connect to a LAN9252 via basic input / output or to a microcontroller such as the 32-bit PIC32MX family via serial communication. The company said that a software development kit (SDK) is also available today that enables developers to immediately begin device evaluations and start building solutions for their applications, allowing them to quickly become familiar with the capabilities of the LAN9252.
