NEC Electronics and Siemens Announce Partnership in Real-time Ethernet Products

Joint Marketing to Boost Sales in Growing Field of Industrial Network Devices

NEC Electronics Corporation and Siemens today announced that the companies have entered into an agreement to collaborate on the ERTEC (Enhanced Real Time Ethernet Controller) series of graded family Ethernet controllers, based on the popular PROFINET industrial Ethernet standard. The products, developed by Siemens Automation and Drives (A&D) and manufactured by NEC Electronics, will be marketed through the worldwide sales and distribution channels of Siemens and NEC Electronics.

The new ERTEC200 and ERTEC400 Ethernet controllers for automation applications support the PROFINET protocol, enabling isochronous real-time (IRT) communication and data transmission rates as fast as 100 megabits per second. The devices include a powerful ARM9 processor, and are based on sensitive power requirements. ERTEC400 is an Ethernet controller with integrated 4-port switch tailored to the power requirements of motion control systems, while the ERTEC200 is a low-cost controller with integrated 2-port switch designed primarily for drives or comparable products, enabling the line cabling of field devices normally used on fieldbuses to be used in Ethernet networks.

Data throughput is guaranteed as the performance matrix for the real-time communication allows control for up to 150 axis at a cycle time of 1 millisecond, with 6 megabytes per second of simultaneously transferable standard TCP/IP data. Moreover, previous investments in infrastructure are secure as PROFINET can be easily integrated with other fieldbus solutions through proxies.

The total number of industrial Ethernet nodes is estimated to exceed 13 million nodes by 2010, and NEC Electronics expects to achieve sales on the order of five billion yen by 2010.

Availability
In Europe, samples of the ERTEC400 are available now and samples of the ERTEC200 will be available in the second quarter of 2006, through NEC Electronics Europe and Siemens A&D. Development kits for the products will also be available. Availability in other regions will follow in the fourth quarter of 2006.

For more information about ERTEC200 and ERTEC400, please visit www.eu.necel.com/ertec or www.siemens.com/ertec

About the PROFINET protocol
PROFINET is the leading industrial Ethernet standard in Europe. Its innovative and open standard for industrial automation supports easy implementation of solutions in factory automation and motion control. PROFINET enables integration of existing fieldbus systems, such as PROFIBUS, without the need to modify existing devices, protecting existing investments of plant operators/owners, machine/plant manufacturers and device manufacturers. PROFINET also incorporates years of know-how from the PROFIBUS and industrial Ethernet world. Web-based operations and Internet connectivity combine to make access and deployment easy, with almost unlimited flexibility and scalability.

Related Contents

• Product Information(NEC Electronics Europe)
  • ERTEC (Enhanced Real-Time Ethernet Controller)

About NEC Electronics

NEC Electronics Corporation (TSE: 6723) specializes in system LSI semiconductor products for a wide range of applications in the computing, networking, mobile, automotive and digital consumer markets. The company was spun off from NEC Corporation in 2002 and listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in 2003. NEC Electronics provides design, development and manufacturing support through its staff of approximately 24,000, from its headquarters in Kawasaki, Japan and 26 worldwide subsidiaries. For more information, please visit www.necel.com.

The Siemens Automation and Drives Group (A&D), Nuremberg, Germany, is the leading manufacturer in this field worldwide. Products supplied by A&D include standard products for the manufacturing and process industries and for the electrical installation industry as well as system solutions, for example for machine tools, and solutions for whole industries such as the automation of entire automobile factories or chemical plants. Supplementing this range of products and services, A&D also offers software for linking production and management (horizontal and vertical IT integration) and for optimizing production processes. A&D employs 60,800 people worldwide and in fiscal year 2005 (to September 30) earned a group profit of €1,210 million on sales of €9,844 million and orders of €10,190 million.