Product category:
Electrical Services
News Release from: Echelon
Edited by the Buildingtalk Editorial
Team on 21 November 2007
Echelon and Altera collaboration
Echelon and Altera collaborate to enable more powerful, multi-purpose controllers for control automation market.
Echelon Corporation and Altera Corporation announce a collaboration to extend the advantages of Echelon's LonWorks networks to controllers used in building, industrial, and home applications As a result of the joint collaboration, the LonWorks communications protocol (a.k.a
This article was originally published on Buildingtalk on 5 Jul 2006 at 8.00am (UK)
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ANSI/EIA709.1 and EN14908) has been ported to Altera's Nios II embedded processor which is implemented in a Cyclone FPGA.
This FPGA-based solution, in conjunction with Echelon's new FTXL high-speed network transceiver, provides a quick and easy hardware interface to LonWorks control networks.
This new solution is expected to expand the market for high-end LonWorks based controllers by enabling manufactures to include greater functionality and processing power - at lower costs.
Further reading
Control technology for world's highest railway
Echelon has announced that its LonWorks control technology has been chosen by Sifang Rolling Stock Research Institute for use in China's new high-tech train to Lhasa, Tibet.
Improved energy savings and student comfort
Singapore Management University deployed Echelon's LonWorks technology in their new city campus as the foundation for their state-of-the-art Intelligent Building Management System.
Echelon expands standards coverage in China
Echelon announced that its control technology has been incorporated in the Chinese national standard for commercial buildings and residential community construction.
For example, a single Cyclone III FPGA and Nios II embedded processor serves as a LonWorks processor, intellectual property (IP) host, digital signal processor, and touch-screen display driver.
Altera's Cyclone III FPGAs deliver high functionality with a rich feature set and very low power consumption, making them ideal for environmentally responsible products that require a high-performance device while reducing energy consumption and cost.
In home appliances, Echelon's newly updated ShortStack 2.1 API uses Altera's Cyclone III FPGA and Nios II embedded processor to replace as many as four function-specific microprocessors with a single FPGA and a power line smart transceiver.
This helps reduce cost, complexity, and development time while simultaneously adding network communications to an appliance that enables utility companies, home appliance OEMs and consumers to effectively manage and control energy consumption.
The ShortStack 2.1 API works in conjunction with Echelon's power line smart transceivers to use the existing electricity wiring in a home for communications, making the solution a "no new wires" approach.
"The combination of Echelon's FTXL high-speed network component and ShortStack 2.1 API with our FPGA and embedded processor technology enables us to deliver flexible, low-cost solutions for consumer products as well as high-performance building and industrial automation system controllers," said Michael Samuelian, director of Altera's industrial business unit.
"Through our close collaboration with Echelon, we will continue to demonstrate the tremendous benefits our FPGA technology provides to the broader building, industrial and home automation markets".
According to Bea Yormark, Echelon's president and COO, "One of the unique abilities of the LonWorks platform from day one has been its potential for adding networking into any electric device".
"We believe that our work with Altera once again demonstrates the almost limitless boundaries of the LonWorks market, delivering a cost-effective and flexible solution not only to consumer products but also the 'high-end' of the device spectrum in typical control, monitoring and sensing networks".
"The collaboration with Altera has been a fruitful one, yielding products that are real enablers in our industry".
Availability.
The Echelon FTXL high-speed network component and ShortStack 2.1 API will be available in January 2008.
Customers interested in learning about these solutions should visit Echelon's website.
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