POWERLINK interface – Three clicks and you're done

Softing and Altera simplify implementation with FPGAs

Softing and Altera have made it considerably easier to implement an FPGA-based POWERLINK interface. Not only will users benefit from easier and more efficient engineering, faster implementation and greater hardware independence, but the chip and the software are available from the same source.

“In the past, hardware and software had to be obtained separately,” explains Frank Iwanitz, product manager at Softing. “With our new approach, we provide the customer with the complete package.” The software licensing itself is tied to the chip.

The Softing solution is optimally integrated in the Altera software environment and can be scaled exactly to the requirements at hand. “The chip and software are harmonized to each other so well that POWERLINK can be implemented with just three clicks,” says Stefan Schönegger, managing director of the EPSG. Special FPGA programming skills are also not required. Independence from the hardware architecture is an additional advantage of this new FPGA-based solution from Softing. Connecting the FPGA using an external memory interface, for example, is no longer necessary.

Additional information about the Softing solution is available on the Internet at the following link: http://industrial.softing.com/en/products/embedded-solutions/protocol-stacks-for-fpgas/ethernet-powerlink/ethernet-powerlink-device-for-altera-fpga.html