Molex unveils Brad® IO-Device protocol development kit version 2.2; Designed to bring PROFINET communication to industrial device equipment

Thanks to its adaptation hardware and operating system layers, the Molex IO-Device stack can be ported on any customer platform both quickly and easily. During this year’s SPS/IPC/Drives exhibition, Molex (Hall 10, Stand 230) will demonstrate the IO-Device stack’s trouble-free portability by running it on an Apple iPad tablet PC connected to a Siemens S7-300 controller. The iPad application simulates a Molex IP67 PROFINET I/O device where it is possible to start and stop the stack, read inputs and write outputs digital value, and generate alarms.

On the PI (PROFIBUS-PROFINET International) stand (Hall 6, Stand 210) there will be a second live demonstration showing the new Molex stack running Isochronous Real Time (IRT) on the ‘easyIRT’ hardware platform developed by InES, the Institute of Embedded Systems at Zurich University of Applied Sciences. “In this application, the Molex IO-Device stack was made IRT compatible within a couple of days,” says Hans Dermot DORAN, Head of Real-Time Ethernet Research Group. “In the demonstration, we will run the Molex PROFINET stack on the Altera Cyclone III microprocessor using a NIOS operating system.”

The Molex PROFINET Stack consists of a CD ROM including ANSI ‘C’ source code, sample applications with source code, and a valuable user manual that includes the complete application interface documentation and the step-by-step instructions on how to port the stack.

· Portability: As of today, the stack has been successfully ported to the following CPU types: Intel x86, ARM 7/9, Motorola Power PC, Innovasic FIDO, and others.

· Operating Systems: As of today, the stack supports the following operating systems: Win32, VxWorks, QNX, Linux, eCos, ThreadX, and others.

· Supported PROFINET features: MRP Client, LLDP, FSU, I&M