• State
  • Locked Locked
  • Replies 2 replies
  • Subscribers 98 subscribers
  • Views 269 views
  • Users 0 members are here
Support feedback
Options
Options
Related

This thread has been locked.

If you have a related question, please click the "Ask a related question" button in the top right corner. The newly created question will be automatically linked to this question.

Performance of EtherCAT master Sitara™︎ Processors

Noam Moshe
Prodigy 50 points

Other Parts Discussed in Thread: AM68

Dear TI Team,

After reading the information at https://www.ti.com/video/series/ethercat-master-on-sitara-processors.html#transcript-tab, I have a few questions raised regarding the processors performance and resources consumption: 

  1. How many cores needed? 
  2. What is the CPU usage consumption? 

Regards,
Noam

  • 0
    TI__Mastermind 41340 points

    Hi,

    Do you have a specific Sitara processor in mind? The training refers to AM57 (dual core) and AM437(single core). There are now newer processors that are may provide a better solution, AM65, AM64 and AM62. The AM64 and AM62 might be better choices. Which OS did you want to run? Would you be using CODESYS by chance?

    Best Regards,

    Schuyler

  • 0 in reply to Schuyler Patton
    TI__Mastermind 27050 points

    In addition to Codesys and Acontis as mentioned, another great EtherCAT master on AM64x and AM243x is https://www.ibv-augsburg.de/en/products/icnet/ethercat-master/ .

    Noam Moshe said:
    • How many cores needed? 
    • What is the CPU usage consumption? 

    EtherCAT is "just" a well defined and latency optimized communication protocol over Ethernet physical layer. EtherCAT master by itself will not require more than a microcontroller core at some 100MHz or so to run. But depending on the required cycle time (smaller is harder), the number (larger is harder) of devices (slaves in EtherCAT standard) the compute need goes up. The application compute needs on top of the communication protocol are on top. In general EtherCAT master is a single threaded application, so multiple cores will only help if you can distribute the application sharing the EtherCAT communication media.

    Anything from the AM243x 400MHz variant to the AM68 2GHz and beyond can be relevant.

      Pekka