Mini PCI fieldbus cards for industrial PCs from Beckhoff Automation LLC, Burnsville, Minn., work with Profibus, CANopen, DeviceNet, and Ethernet networks.
for industrial PCs from Beckhoff Automation LLC, Burnsville, Minn., work with Profibus, CANopen, DeviceNet, and Ethernet networks. The small size saves valuable cabinet space, but, like standard PCI fieldbus cards, the interfaces are optimized for fast controllers and real-time tasks.
The fieldbus cards work best with the company's TwinCAT PLC and NC software. However, other applications can benefit from PCI cards that efficiently handle fieldbus protocols on their own processors. The bus interface is implemented in the PC housing (device specific), not on the fieldbus card. The fieldbus cards are available with optional Novram. Novram modules come in 128, 256, and 512-kbyte sizes for fail-safe storage of process data.