NETWORK SUBSCRIBER

• US 20160132446A1
• Filed: 01/15/2016
• Published: 05/12/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 04/29/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Beckhoff Automation GmbH
• Original Assignee: Beckhoff Automation GmbH
• Inventors: Bunte, Thorsten, Rettig, Thomas, Buettner, Holger, Vonnahme, Erik, Janssen, Dirk, Beckhoff, Hans
• Granted Patent: US 10,089,268 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/10 Distribution of clock signals , e.g. skew
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/362 with centralised access control
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/40013 Details regarding a bus controller

Abstract

A network subscriber comprises a plurality of individual functional units, each individual functional unit comprising an application interface. The network subscriber further comprises a network subscriber comprises at least a shared functional unit, a first interface for establishing a physical connection and a second interface for establishing a further physical connection.

Claims

1. A network subscriber comprising:

a plurality of individual functional units, each individual functional unit comprising an application interface,

at least a shared functional unit,

a first interface for establishing a physical connection, and

a second interface for establishing a further physical connection.

2. The network subscriber of claim 1, wherein the shared functional unit is used by all individual functional units.

3. The network subscriber of claim 1, wherein the shared functional unit comprises:

a chip interface to a non-volatile data memory, and/or

first portions of a unit for managing a distributed time signal, and/or

at least a light-emitting diode, and/or

a clock-generating unit, and/or

a generation unit for a reset signal.

4. The network subscriber of claim 3, wherein the shared functional unit comprises a packet-processing unit.

5. The network subscriber of claim 4, wherein the packet-processing unit is configured to recognize packet components of a packet received by the network subscriber and/or to examine a check sum and/or to generate a check sum.

6. The network subscriber of claim 1, wherein each individual functional unit comprises a memory-managing unit.

7. The network subscriber of claim 1, wherein each individual functional unit comprises a core unit.

8. The network subscriber of claim 7, wherein each core unit comprises:

a register set, and/or

a volatile data memory, and/or

a SyncManager, and/or

second portions of a unit for managing a distributed time signal.

9. The network subscriber of claim 7, wherein:

the core unit of a first individual functional unit comprises registers for accessing the first interface, and/or

the core unit of a second individual functional unit comprises registers for accessing the second interface.

10. The network subscriber of claim 1, wherein the network subscriber comprises a managing interface for managing the first interface and/or the second interface.

11. The network subscriber of claim 10, wherein the managing interface can only be accessed by a first individual functional unit and/or a second individual functional unit.

12. The network subscriber of claim 1, wherein the first interface comprises a first FIFO queue and/or the second interface comprises a second FIFO queue.

13. The network subscriber of claim 1, wherein the first interface and the second interface are configured as Ethernet interfaces.

14. The network subscriber of claim 1, wherein the network subscriber is configured as an EtherCAT subscriber.

15. The network subscriber of claim 14, wherein the application interfaces of the individual functional units are configured for the connection of EtherCAT application controllers.

16. The network subscriber of claim 1, wherein the network subscriber comprises at least one further interface for establishing another physical connection.

17. A network subscriber comprising:

a plurality of individual functional units, each individual functional unit comprising a memory-managing unit,

at least a shared functional unit,

a first interface for establishing a physical connection, and

a second interface for establishing a further physical connection.

18. The network subscriber of claim 17, wherein the shared functional unit is used by all individual functional units.

19. The network subscriber of claim 17, wherein the shared functional units comprise:

a chip interface to a non-volatile data memory, and/or

first portions of a unit for managing a distributed time signal, and/or

at least a light-emitting diode, and/or

a clock-generating unit, and/or

a generation unit for a reset signal.

20. A network subscriber comprising:

a plurality of individual functional units,

at least a shared functional unit,

a first interface for establishing a physical connection,

a second interface for establishing a further physical connection, and

a managing interface for managing the first interface and/or the second interface.

21. The network subscriber of claim 20, wherein the managing interface can only be accessed by a first individual functional unit and/or a second individual functional unit.