TOKYO, June 17 /PRNewswire/ — Xilinx, Inc. (NASDAQ:XLNX) , the world’s leading supplier of programmable logic solutions, announced today that its FPGAs would be the first in the industry to support the MECHATROLINK-III specification, an open motion field network communications standard established by the Iruma, Saitama Prefecture, Japan-based MECHATROLINK Members Association. Xilinx Alliance Program member Tokyo Electron Device Limited has developed an IP core compatible with the MECHATROLINK-III standard for implementation with the low-cost Spartan®-6 FPGA family. Xilinx and Tokyo Electron Device will be demonstrating the MECHATROLINK-III interface system at Embedded Technology West (ET West) 2010 held at Intex Osaka on June 17 and 18 (booth C-01).
MECHATROLINK is an open network communication system for motion control which connects the components of factory automation (FA) systems–such as servo motors, inverters, and stepping motors–with a controller. MECHATROLINK assures high-speed communication and synchronization to achieve a fast, high-performance, and highly reliable system; makes the system smaller and expandable; and reduces wiring requirements. Products accredited by the MECHATROLINK Members Association totaling approximately 1.7 million nodes for semiconductor and LCD production equipment, food wrapping equipment, and light-emitting diode (LED) production equipment have been shipped and are operating in Japan and around the world.
The IP core supplied by Tokyo Electron Device is compliant with the MECHATROLINK-III standard to support a data transfer speed of 100Mbps that’s compatible with the Ethernet standard, cycle time of 31.25microns-64ms, and capable of connecting up to 62 equipment nodes, the control of which can be fully synchronized. Previous development of systems compliant with MECHATROLINK-III used ASICs for a master/slave configuration, but Tokyo Electron Device will supply a MECHATROLINK-III-compliant IP core for the Xilinx Spartan-6 family. Use of the IP core enables separate arrangements of master and slave functions if required. This solution makes the system more compact, faster, and highly integrated, and reduces system costs compared with using ASICs. It also takes advantage of the flexibility of FPGAs to provide substantial support for developing systems that combine a broad range of equipment more efficiently.
“We expect MECHATROLINK to spread faster now that an IP core compliant with the MECHATROLINK-III standard is being made available for Xilinx’s Spartan-6 FPGA,” said MECHATROLINK Members Association General Manager Takeshi Tanaka. “Users will gain considerable benefit from the combination of the openness of MECHATROLINK and flexibility of FPGAs, which will enable them to use a common platform with MECHATROLINK specifications and improve performance while reducing costs.”
“Factory automation is a key growth area for Xilinx as more developers turn to FPGAs to overcome the high-cost of chip development and still meet their high-compute performance requirements,” said Mark Jensen, Director, ISM Vertical Markets at Xilinx. “We are confident that the high-performance, low-cost Spartan-6 FPGA family will offer users of MECHATROLINK-III new possibilities for innovation in factory automation applications.”
Pricing and availability
Tokyo Electron Device will begin supplying the IP core compliant with MECHATROLINK-III for Spartan-6 FPGAs in the third quarter of 2010 after certification by the MECHATROLINK Members Association. For more information about the IP core, visit: http://www.inrevium.jp/eng/ip/mechatro.html. To inquire about prices and other information, visit Tokyo Electron Device at http://www.inrevium.jp/eng/dl-form.html.
About the MECHATROLINK Members Association
The MECHATROLINK Members Association (MMA) was formed in 2003. As of January 2010 there were 560 member companies around the world; the association is targeting membership of over 1,000. Members consist of MECHATROLINK product developers and MECHATROLINK users. MMA has a head office in Japan and branch offices in the U.S., Germany, South Korea, and China. MMA is strengthening its overseas offices with a view to worldwide distribution of MECHATROLINK. The association is actively working toward building a motion network MECHATROLINK “family.” For further information, visit: http://www.mechatrolink.org/ .
About Tokyo Electron Device
Tokyo Electron Device Limited has a trading business that supplies semiconductor products and solutions, and a development business that undertakes work on contract and supplies “inrevium” brand products developed by the company. For more information about Tokyo Electron Device, visit:http://www.teldevice.co.jp/.
About Xilinx
Xilinx is the worldwide leader in complete programmable logic solutions. For more information, visit http://www.xilinx.com/.
