Today, there are more than 25 Ethernet-based industrial communication systems that co-exist in the market. Vendors of industrial devices need to create solutions to optimally support multiple RTE (real-time Ethernet) protocols within a single hardware platform, and that can be field-upgraded to support new versions of existing protocolswww.cechina.cn, or even completely different protocolswww.cechina.cn, without replacing hardware.

　　An FPGA-based system supporting both RTE and standard TCP/IP
　　Industrial Ethernet (

IE) product developers combine the ubiquitous Ethernet physical layer with other hardware or software to create a “proprietary” or specialized RTE protocol, such as EtherCATwww.cechina.cn, EtherNet/IP, and Profinet. The objective is to add a real time and deterministic communication capability while retaining the advantages, popularity, and openness of Ethernet.
　　This type of universal access point can simultaneously serve I/O data communication, parameterization, configurationCONTROL ENGINEERING China版权所有, diagnosis, and other applications. The ideal IE interface simultaneously supports standard protocols like HTTP and FTP in addition to industry specific RTE protocols to ensure scalability and flexibility. The main difference between “standard” and RTE protocols is that RTE protocols have a clear specification for deterministic communication.
　　FPGA-based solution
　　Field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) represent an elegant solution to this problem. When combined with intellectual property (IP) cores for Ethernet, RTE protocolswww.cechina.cn, and other industrial network standards控制工程网版权所有, FPGAs enable designers to implement a single-board design that can support any of these communication standards. This not only reduces the form factor, but also saves time. Device manufacturers can cost effectively add industry standard networking capabilities to their automation products while retaining design flexibility in their systems due to FPGAs’ reprogrammability.
　　The creation of FPGA configurations is greatly accelerated by the use of pre-buil