AM6442: Licensing of industrial protocols in PROCESSOR-SDK-AM64X

OH,

Some answers to your query

Q1 - The protocol stack price is included in the F part. But for support and customization, you will need to contact TI

Q3 - CC Link IE TSN will be supported by 4Q 2025. No plans for IE Field as of now

Could you clarify on the Q2?  Are you asking about support for Protocol certification?

Regards,
Prajith

Hi Prajith,

Thank you for your reply. Below are some comments from customers.

Prajith Jayarajan said:

Q1 - The protocol stack price is included in the F part. But for support and customization, you will need to contact TI

If I purchase a model with an F, am I correct in thinking that I don't need an additional license even if I ask a third party to create firmware based on the SDK?

Prajith Jayarajan said:

Could you clarify on the Q2?  Are you asking about support for Protocol certification?

What kind of certification does the Certified Protocol Software Stacks receive, and from whom? Also, what kind of support is available? These are the kinds of things I'm curious about.

Additional Question.
Is it possible to implement multiple protocols such as EtherCAT, EtherNet/IP, Profinet, etc. in an industrial network and enable only one of them?
The hardware and firmware themselves are the same, and the following switching is assumed.

• Industrial network disabled
• Only EtherCAT enabled
• Only EtherNet/IP enabled
• Only Profinet enabled
• Only CC-Link IE TSN enabled

Best regards,
O.H

OH,

O.H said:

If I purchase a model with an F, am I correct in thinking that I don't need an additional license even if I ask a third party to create firmware based on the SDK?

Please contact your TI sales representative for exact information here.

O.H said:

What kind of certification does the Certified Protocol Software Stacks receive, and from whom? Also, what kind of support is available? These are the kinds of things I'm curious about.

TI have already certified Ethernet/IP an Ethercat stacks. Profinet certification is in progress. This is like precertification and customer will need to recertify the product which is developed.  i recommend to contact TI sales representative as i will not be able to discuss this in e2e forums

O.H said:

Is it possible to implement multiple protocols such as EtherCAT, EtherNet/IP, Profinet, etc. in an industrial network and enable only one of them?
The hardware and firmware themselves are the same, and the following switching is assumed.

This is technically feasible by detecting the traffic and loading the proper application. Please make sure you will need to load separate binaries to the arm core in this case.  Could you explain a bit more about the use case here?

Regards,
Prajith

Hi Prajith,

Thank you for your reply. Below are some comments from customers.

Prajith Jayarajan said:

This is technically feasible by detecting the traffic and loading the proper application. Please make sure you will need to load separate binaries to the arm core in this case.  Could you explain a bit more about the use case here?

We are considering the following product lineup:
- Products that do not support industrial Ethernet
- Products that support EtherCAT slaves
- Products that support EtherNet/IP
- Products that support Profinet
...

As another way to achieve this, we are considering the Anybus module from HMS.
A connector for the module would be prepared on the microcontroller board, and the function would be switched based on the module type.
- For those that do not support industrial Ethernet ⇒ No module
- For those that support EtherCAT slave ⇒ Install AB6607-E
 -For those that support EtherNet/IP ⇒ Install AB6604-E
 -For those that support Profinet ⇒ Install AB6605-E
 ...

It seems possible to achieve something similar by preparing separate firmware.
However, as this would require complicated management and operation, we were wondering if there might be some way to enable one of the industrial Ethernet interfaces using common firmware, and have it operate with that setting from the next time it is started.

I understood the other answers.

Best regards,
O.H