Emulation of a digital Process-Oriented Real-Time Communication Circuit

For a new generation of a fieldbus system a packet-oriented real-time communication system based on a powerful and extremely flexible FPGA Platform was developed. By the use of this process-oriented real-time communication (PORTcom) platform it was possible to fulfill the hard timing constraints given by the communication of highly dynamic processes located close to the sensors. The packet-based access method causes high requirements for the signal generation and detection. To meet these requirements, a complex FPGA (Xilinx Spartan-6) and a high-performance microcontroller (ARM7 series) were necessary. The research results will now serve the immediate development of a new mixed signal IC. This paper focuses on the architecture and function of the PORTcom platform.