Infineon's XMC4800 microcontroller simplifies the implementation of EtherCAT connectivity and saves PCB space that was normally occupied by the standalone EtherCAT ASIC, its associated memory IC, and crystal oscillator.
Jonathan Boxall, RS Semiconductor Director, states: “Now our customers can offer the speed, flexibility, and simplicity of EtherCAT connectivity in more compact products, at lower costs and with a shorter time to market,” adding about this new range: “In combination with its exceptional real-time features, the XMC4800 series accelerates the evolution of industrial automation.”.
EtherCAT offers numerous advantages for industrial automation and IoT application development, such as precise synchronization, built-in diagnostics, and functional safety support. Typical CPU loads are also lower compared to other systems. In the XMC4800 series, resources like the 144 MHz Cortex-M4 core, with DSP extensions and floating-point acceleration, are freed up to meet the complex processing demands of applications in equipment such as production lines, smart building controllers, medical devices, construction machinery, wind farms, solar energy, and many more.
The XMC4800 also boasts ample code and data storage capacity, with up to 2 MB of on-chip Flash and up to 352 KB of RAM. Other valuable on-chip features include six CAN nodes with 256 message objects, high-performance ADCs, DACs, and sigma-delta modulators, as well as industrial control-specific functions such as capture/compare units for motor control and general-purpose applications, servo positioning interfaces (POSIF), a watchdog timer (WDT) for applications requiring high levels of safety, and a system control unit (SCU). Integrated features also include an Ethernet MAC, a full-speed USB OTG host peripheral device, an LED and touch controller, an SDIO/MMC interface, and six universal serial interface channels.
Pin and software compatibility with the Infineon XMC4000 series offers a simple upgrade for designs based on existing microcontrollers. Engineers familiar with Infineon's DAVE™ integrated development environment (IDE) will be pleased to know that new free DAVE sample code and the integrated Beckhoff tool are available to help them take full advantage of the EtherCAT features on the XMC4800 series chip.
The available models in the XMC4800 range allow you to choose between LPQFP100, LPQFP144 or LFBGA196 and between temperature ranges of -40 ºC to 85 ºC or -40 ºC to 125 ºC for use in harsh environments.
