Industrial interface

Siemens has equipped the main board of its industrial PC family with a Profinet interface.

Designed as a 3-port switch, it supports isochronous real time and integrates the PC into Profinet networks.

The controller architecture is based on the standard Profinet Asic Ertec 400 with integrated real-time-enabled communication, which can be implemented from the corporate management level down to the process. It also enables IT communication via one line using TCP/IP, for example.

The interface, which is integrated on the mainboard, relieves the PC processor of communication tasks and increases system performance. This also saves a slot, making it available for other PC expansion cards.

The three Profinet ports allow flexible and simple establishment of linear or ring topologies and are used on PLCs, distribute I/O or drives to the PC.

Alternatively, with real-time communication, the ports can be used as standard Windows interfaces for TCP/IP communication, for example, or for visualisation tasks with Simatic WinCC flexible.

The latest version of the software, PLC WinAC RTX 2008, already uses the communication facilities of the onboard interface.

The network topology is configured with Step 7 or NCM-PC.