Mentor Graphics announces EtherCAT protocol support for Nucleus RTOS

October 19, 2016 - Mentor Graphics announced EtherCAT Master protocol support for the Mentor Embedded Nucleus real-time operating system (RTOS) targeting high-performance, next-generation industrial automation devices.  The Nucleus RTOS combined with the KPA EtherCAT Master stack provides an integrated reference software solution for device developers.  Designed to meet the rigorous timing requirements for industrial automation, the reference solution delivers EtherCAT cycle times of 100 microsecond cycles (10,000 frames per second) with a low jitter rate for precise device synchronization.  The Nucleus RTOS with KPA EtherCAT Master protocol is suitable for devices with hard and soft real-time requirements in industrial automation, as well as medical, energy and other market segments.

The need for high speed, time synchronization and efficiency in industrial automation networks places new requirements on industrial device manufacturers.  EtherCAT is a scalable Ethernet protocol that is being adopted at a rapid rate.  The Nucleus RTOS with KPA EtherCAT Master provides industrial device manufacturers with an integrated solution that improves communication performance. The reference solution provides developers with a scalable solution that can be configured for ARM-based platforms.

The KPA EtherCAT stack has been optimized for embedded devices.  The real-time performance of the Nucleus RTOS and the deterministic qualities of EtherCAT communication provides the speed and synchronization required in today’s industrial automation devices.  The EtherCAT solution includes the KPA EtherCAT Studio configuration tool, and sample applications which have been integrated with Nucleus RTOS and the Sourcery CodeBench integrated development environment (IDE).