EtherCAT is the Industrial Ethernet Solution that convinces equally through
performance, flexibility and cost advantages. The functional principle -
processing 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. |
