A semiconductor company based in Bristol, XMOS, added Modbus and CANopen xSOFTip blocks to the rapidly expanding range of embedded industrial communications capabilities supported by thexCORE family of multi-core microcontrollers.

CANopen and Modbus are considered as the leading industrial communications protocols. The addition of these new soft peripherals enables designers to integrate these commonly-required protocols in their xCORE-based embedded designs, alongside a wide range of other industrial communications standards and timing-predictable, jitter-free control code.

This configuration allows embedded designers to build systems with the exact combination of interfaces and control capabilities needed for their applications.

IN this way, CANopen and Modbus, join a wide variety of protocols and interfaces already available as part of the XMOS xSOFTip peripheral library. These include CANbus, RS485 and LIN, as well as standard and time-stamped Ethernet, both of which are making rapid inroads in industrial markets.

xCORE devices offer the features and functions of a real-time operating system, (RTOS), in hardware blocks within the multicore architecture.

With newly available Modbus and CANopen blocks, XMOS offers a variety of xSOFTip blocks aimed at industrial designers, including real-time Ethernet, USB, motor and motion control, and human-machine interface (HMI) functions.

Paul Neil, VP product management at XMOS said in a statement “xCORE is the only platform that allows embedded designers to choose the exact set of interfaces and control capabilities required for their application, while working in an easy-to-use C-based programming environment. Our customers have the freedom to combine communications interfaces and protocols, jitter-free and timing-deterministic control and high-performance DSP for complex control loops; and that freedom means they can create products that would otherwise be impossible to build.”