(사)한국잡지협회

Controller with high-speed isochronous Profinet communication

A wide range of Simatic controllers now communicates via high-speed IRT (Isochronous Realtime) Profinet. The Siemens Industry Automation Division has therefore equipped the devices with the relevant interfaces. The CPU 319-3 PN/DP for the Simatic S7-300, the Profinet CPUs of the Simatic S7-400, a new Profinet CPU for the ET 200S distributed I/O system and the new Simatic S7-mEC embedded controller have IRT capability. IRT is especially suitable for large machines and equipment with short updating times and a large number of nodes in a linear arrangement. IRT is also advantageous when automation data and a high volume of standard Ethernet data, for example via TCP/IP, have to be transferred within a network.

IRT Profinet divides the medium bandwidth into two intervals. One of them is reserved for the fast and deterministic transfer of automation data while the other is used for standard Ethernet data which are not time-critical. The FSU (Fast Start Up) function enables Profinet IO devices connected to the network to power up within one second. This is extremely useful in robot applications, for example, where rapid re-tooling is necessary. The integrated web server provides user-friendly diagnostic functions, for example for the topology of the entire network or the status of the connected Profinet and Profibus field devices. Important web information, such as variable status and tables as well as the status of field devices, is updated automatically.