EtherCAT - The Ethernet Fieldbus.

Why EtherCAT?

• it's Industrial Ethernet
• it's faster
• it's cost effective
• it's easy to use
• it's flexible topology
• it's Safety on Ethernet
• it's open and future proof
• it's well proven
• it's versatile

EtherCAT (Ethernet for Control Automation Technology) is the Ethernet fieldbus hat provides industry leading performance, flexibility and cost advantages. The functional principle - processing data on the fly - makes EtherCAT the fastest system currently available: cycle times of a few µs are possible.

The nodes can be synchronized with highest precision. The wiring flexibility of EtherCAT is outstanding, too: arbitrary network topologies are supported, with any number of nodes in line.

EtherCAT is the only hard real time Industrial Ethernet solution that does not require dedicated hardware (e.g. MAC with communication coprocessor) for the master, but can be implemented in software on any Ethernet controller. The Slave Controller chips are inexpensive, too. Switches are not needed. This leads to cost advantages in Master, Slave and infrastructure - even compared with legacy fieldbus systems.

EtherCAT is completely transparent for all Internet technologies and thus supports the vertical integration in heterogeneous networks.

Register now if you want to learn about EtherCAT and the challenges of Industrial Ethernet!