Infineon's new XMC4800 range promotes IoT applications.
RS Components presents new options to develop automation projects thanks to the introduction of the first EtherCAT® node integrated in an ARM® Cortex®-M microcontroller. Infineon's XMC4800 microcontroller makes it easy to implement EtherCAT connectivity and saves PCB space normally occupied by the standalone EtherCAT ASIC, its associated memory IC, and crystal oscillator. www.rs-components.com Jonathan Boxall, Director of Semiconductors at RS says: "Now our customers can offer the speed, flexibility and simplicity of EtherCAT connectivity in more compact products, with lower costs and faster time to market", clarifying about this new range: "In combination with its exceptional functions in real time, the XMC4800 series accelerates the evolution of industrial automation". EtherCAT brings numerous benefits to industrial automation and IoT application development, such as exact synchronization, built-in diagnostic functions, and support for functional safety. Typical CPU loads are also lower compared to other systems. In the XMC4800 series, resources such as the 4 MHz Cortex-M144 core, which has DSP extensions and floating-point acceleration, are freed up to meet the complex processing demands of applications in equipment such as production lines, building controllers smart devices, medical devices, construction machinery, wind farms, solar energy and many more. The XMC4800 also boasts abundant code and data storage capacity, with up to 2MB of on-chip Flash and up to 352KB of RAM. Other valuable features available on the chip include the six CAN nodes with 256 message objects, the high-performance ADCs, DACs and sigma-delta modulators, and specific functions for industrial control, such as the capture/compare units for the general purpose and motor control, Positioning Servo Motor Interfaces (POSIF), Watchdog Timer (WDT) for applications requiring high levels of safety, and System Control Unit (SCU). Also onboard is an Ethernet MAC, USB Host Full-Speed OTG peripheral device, LED and touch controller, SDIO/MMC interface, and six universal serial interface channels. Pin and software compatibility with the Infineon XMC4000 series offers an easy upgrade to designs based on existing microcontrollers. Engineers familiar with Infineon's DAVE™ Integrated Development Environment (IDE) will be pleased to know that the new free DAVE sample code and embedded Beckhoff tool are available to help realize the full potential of on-chip EtherCAT features. XMC4800 series.
