Flexible connectivity is an area of Xilinx's cost-optimized product portfolio, especially when using the Xilinx Spartan-7 product family. These devices provide an ideal architecture that operates with high fan-out at optimized system-level costs. Flexible I/O and programmable logic can use almost all types of network protocols to obtain and process large amounts of data from the interface. The processor soft core is ideal for running network stacks, especially Xilinx Microblaze.

Xilinx adaptive SoC and FPGA are usually used in traditional networked IO modules and smart sensors. They can be connected to inter-chip connections or external PHYs, which can drive lines at greater distances. The integrated XADC block is ideal for capturing analog data. Using programmable logic, information can be aggregated and forwarded to an industrial controller or gateway via the backplane bus. In addition, functional safety can be extended, which can gain huge advantages from Xilinx-certified design tools and the provision of reliability data.

Modern I/O modules are IoT devices and can be connected to the Internet, so they can be logged in remotely. For this reason, the application processor in the adaptive SoC has certain advantages. Xilinx SoC features can optimize the supported IT/OT fusion functions, namely:

Heterogeneous embedded processing, I/O high flexibility, hardware-based deterministic control, so that there is no interference between IT and OT functions

Connect via multiple industrial Ethernet standards, including support for time-constrained networking (TSN)

Comply with IEC 62443 network security standard

Real-time analysis and machine learning for more autonomous and responsive systems

Design example:

Description: FPGA can provide processor soft core for optimized industrial IoT connection

Industrial Ethernet

High-speed backplane and inter-chip communication

Speed up/offload the Ethernet stack

Advanced signal processing

Multi-channel PWM, ADC, input and output

MicroBlaze processor

Device support:

Xilinx Spartan-7, Artix-7

Xilinx Spartan-7, Artix-7