In conjunction with SPS, the world’s largest industrial trade show in Nuremburg, Germany, today we announced our new industrial automation solution to ease and accelerate industrial designs. Imagine using one chip that contains all the industrial communications protocols you need for your design, including EtherCAT®, Ethernet/IP, PROFIBUS®, PROFINET®, POWERLINK and SERCOS III.
This is all possible with TI’s new Sitara™ AM335x ARM Cortex-A8 microprocessors because they offer an ARM + programmable real-time unit (PRU) architecture and several other key, on-chip industrial peripherals — CAN, ADC, USB + PHY and two-port Gigabit Ethernet with IEEE1588 — to enable fast network connectivity and rapid data throughput, as well as connection to sensors, actuators and motor control. This type of architecture eliminates the need for an ASIC or FPGA and can result in an overall bill of materials cost reduction of as much as 30 percent!
So, what type of industrial applications could you design with these processors? Here are a few ideas:
- Drives and I/O level devices targeted to enable sensors, actuators, motor drives, communications modules and gateways needing industrial slave communications
- Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs) that need to control various I/O devices such as electric motors, hydraulic cylinders, magnetic relays, solenoids and more
- Human Machine Interfaces (HMIs) for interactive touch screens on industrial automation interface panels
- And many more!
It’s your turn! How would this unique, one-chip architecture specifically benefit your design?
Thanks and Best Regards,
Srikanth (Srik) Gurrapu