High speed communications specialist Nine Ways Research & Development has launched NetFusion, an industrial Ethernet switch development board based on Microsemi's SmartFusion 2 FPGA. NetFusion is said to be designed specifically for use in industrial networking, site perimeter telemetry and telematics and industrial motor control, as well as other industrial applications.
"As a development or reference design kit, the board enables powerful features of the SmartFusion2 to be realised and made full use of in the field, particularly in the industrial environment," said Paul Bates, Nine Ways' CEO. "In particular, a key focus of NetFusion is the industrial networking segment where it can host various applicable industrial switches in the SmartFusion2's FPGA fabric."
Nine Ways – the UK subsidiary of German company MorethanIP – designed NetFusion to provide a platform for evaluating, developing and deploying 10/100/1000 industrial Ethernet switches. It is available in CAT5 and fibre/small form factor pluggable (SFP) variants and is intended to enable legacy communications and infrastructure to connect with high speed Ethernet and USB.
"SmartFusion2 is ideal for a variety of industrial Ethernet applications, and we are pleased the Nine Ways team sees the high value of this device," said Bruce Weyer, business unit manager at Microsemi.
Author
Graham Pitcher
Source: www.newelectronics.co.uk