TI Toolkit for EtherCAT Slave AM64x EVM (powered by Kunbus)

The AM64x EVM is a standalone test, development, and evaluation module (EVM) that lets developers evaluate AM64x's functionality and develop prototypes for a variety of applications. The EVM is equipped with a Sitara™ AM6442 processor along with additional components to allow the user to make use of the various device interfaces including Industrial Ethernet, standard Ethernet, PCIe, Fast Serial Interface (FSI) and others to easily create prototypes. AM64x is an extension of Sitara’s industrial-grade family of heterogeneous Arm® Cortex® processors.

The EtherCAT example application provides a basic understanding of how the EC Device Stack can be configured and handled. The application initializes and configures the board and the system hardware. It handles the process data, occasional callback requests from the stack, LED status updates and permanent data operations.

AM64x is built for industrial applications, such as motor drives and Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs), which require a unique combination of real-time processing and communications with applications processing. AM64x combines two instances of Sitara’s gigabit TSN-enabled PRU-ICSSG with up to two Cortex-A53 cores, up to four Cortex-R5F MCUs, and a Cortex-M4F MCU. PRU-ICSSG firmware and Arm-based software provide the flexible industrial communications capability necessary to run gigabit TSN or various popular industrial Ethernet protocols. In addition, the PRU-ICSSG also enables additional interfaces in the SoC including sigma delta decimation filters and absolute encoder interfaces. Software Development Kits (SDKs) for the AM64x may be downloaded from TI for a quick start to evaluation and development.