EtherCAT Master Software on Windows

EtherCAT and Windows

Today, EtherCAT has become one of the most popular real-time Ethernet solutions in the world. The EtherCAT Technology Group (ETG) is responsible for keeping the EtherCAT technology open for all potential users. The ETG is the fieldbus organization with the largest number of members in the world. The list of members can be found on its homepage.

The EtherCAT Master Software EC-Master supports 32-Bit applications and 64-Bit applications on Microsoft Windows 10.

Solution without Real-time performance: Windows NDIS filter driver

The Network Driver Interface Specification (NDIS) is the specification for a network driver architecture that allows transport protocols like TCP/IP to communicate with an underlying physical network adapter. For sending and receiving EtherCAT frames in Windows, EC-Master includes a NDIS Link Layer (emllNdis.dll) to make use of any Windows network interface.

Typical network cycle time: >=4 ms (not guaranteed)

Solution with Soft Real-time performance: Acontis Ethernet driver

Typical network cycle time: >=1 ms (not guaranteed)

Solution with Hard Real-time performance: EC-Win (RT-Linux)

Typical network cycle time: <= 1 ms (guaranteed!)

• Fully integrated EtherCAT real-time solution
  • one vendor, one support contact
  • Acontis has expertise for Windows real-time extensions back to 1994 and is leading provider for EtherCAT software since 2005
• Key Features
  • Win32 real-time platform base on Real-time Linux
    • Most popular and de-fact standard RTOS
    • Deterministic and hard real-time
  • Microsoft® Visual Studio® support for the non-real-time and real-time part of the software
  • Class A EtherCAT Master Stack
  • High Performance real-time Ethernet Drivers
• All runtime components included: No additional license required
  • License for EtherCAT Class A Master Stack
  • License for RT-Linux based Windows Real-time Platform