Internet connectivity: The time is right and the technology is ready for you
By Olaf Pfeiffer and John Rodrigues
[ Introduction
| Internet Connectivity Parameters | Case
Study ]
[ Adapting
the Software | Dynamic Web Pages
| Feedback with Forms ]
[ Continuous Refresh | Security
| Summary ]
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Case Study: Implementing TCP/IP to CANopen gateway on an 8-bit Processor
When Embedded Systems Academy was approached by Philips Semiconductors to prove that such Embedded Internetworking gateway applications could be implemented on a regular 8051 microcontroller, we accepted the challenge - and designed and built a prototype of a gateway between the Internet and a CAN/CANopen network. See figure 1 for an illustration of the components.
Figure 1 Connecting a CAN
bus to the Internet
The choice for using CAN and CANopen was made due to its increasing popularity in embedded machine control applications. Since CAN interfaces are available directly on-chip with a wide selection of 8-bit and 16-bit microcontrollers from many semiconductor manufacturers, developers can most likely find a derivative of their favorite microcontroller that has a CAN interface on-chip. Besides a transceiver and the connector, no additional hardware is required to connect such a microcontroller to a CAN bus that just requires a twisted pair as physical media.
As usual with embedded projects today, time-to-market is an issue, even in a "proof of concept" project. Due to customer requirements, the prototype based on the Philips 8xC591 Rapid Development Starter Kits from Phytec had to be completed in less than three weeks.
This implementation of a network protocol stack is a perfect example of how to shorten time-to-market by selecting off-the-shelf software products. Instead of re-inventing the wheel and writing the network protocol stacks for TCP/IP and CANopen ourselves, we chose commercial, off-the-shelf implementations specifically optimized for 8-bit and 16-bit microcontrollers, and which included all source files.
| < Previous Page |
[ Introduction
| Internet Connectivity Parameters | Case
Study ]
[ Adapting
the Software | Dynamic Web Pages
| Feedback with Forms ]
[ Continuous Refresh | Security
| Summary ]
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