B & R and EPSG cooperate with Altera solutions based on industrial Ethernet
on March 2, 2011
B & R and the Ethernet Powerlink standardization group (EPSG, its acronym in English) have initiated their cooperation with the company altered to increase the interest and lower cost solutions based on industrial Ethernet. Based on the standard protocol Powerlink, the partnership allows this technology to be used even with reduced price sensors.
"Our FPGA-based solution is an attractive proposal for component manufacturers." Cooperation with Altera allows us to lower prices of the Powerlink solutions up to 4 euros, being thus more competitive in terms of absolute cost than conventional ASIC. "No other system in real time can offer you a price so attractive to manufacturers of components for the world of the industrial Ethernet", says Stefan Schönegger, director of the Open Automation of B & R business unit.
Cyclone IV presents an extremely compact design, a reduction in the power consumption of up to 25% (compared to its predecessor) and is easy to integrate into the manufacturing process.
"The combination of Powerlink and Cyclone IV FPGA from Altera provides manufacturers of automation components an easy-to-use solution and of low cost and is a real alternative to proprietary solutions based on Asic technology", notes Michael Samueliandirector of the Industrial business and automotive alters unit.