I/O Modules and Smart Sensors

Any-to-Any Connectivity and Distributed Computing for traditional and networked I/O Modules and Sensors

Overview

With high counts of flexible I/O and hardware-level logic manipulations and buffering available to the user, Xilinx SoCs and FPGAs are commonly used in traditional and networked IO modules and Smart Sensors. In traditional low-cost architectures, FPGAs interface to multiplexed digital and analog (via integrated XADC block) inputs, digital outputs, and aggregate communications to an industrial controller over backplane/bus topologies with optional controls for functional safety. Many modern I/O modules, and certainly Smart Sensors, are networked themselves and often carry distributed intelligence available through hard or soft application processors to enable multiple new use cases and performance. These I/O modules face the same requirements of other IIoT devices in an IT/OT converged function that are optimally supported by Xilinx SoCs, namely:

Heterogeneous embedded processing, I/O flexibility, hardware-based deterministic control for non-interference between IT and OT functionality
Connectivity over diverse Industrial Ethernet standards including support for Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN)
Compliance for IEC 62443 cybersecurity
Real-time analytics and machine learning for more autonomous and responsive systems

Design Examples	Description	Device Support
Click to enlarge	Industrial Ethernet High-speed backplane and chip-to-chip communications Accelerated/offloaded Ethernet Stack Advanced Signal Processing Multichannel PWM, ADC, Inputs and Outputs Microblaze Processor	Spartan-7 FPGA Artix-7 FPGA
Click to enlarge	Industrial Ethernet High-speed backplane and chip-to-chip communications Accelerated/offloaded Ethernet Stack Advanced Signal Processing Multichannel PWM, ADC, Inputs and Outputs Arm Cortex Application Processor	Zynq-7000S SoC
Click to enlarge	Industrial Ethernet High-speed backplane and chip-to-chip communications Accelerated/offloaded Ethernet Stack Advanced Signal Processing Redundant Multichannel PWM, ADC, Inputs and Outputs Arm Cortex Application Processor	Zynq-7000S SoC

Design Examples

Description

Device Support

Click to enlarge

Industrial Ethernet
High-speed backplane and chip-to-chip communications
Accelerated/offloaded Ethernet Stack
Advanced Signal Processing
Multichannel PWM, ADC, Inputs and Outputs
Microblaze Processor

Spartan-7 FPGA

Artix-7 FPGA

Click to enlarge

Industrial Ethernet
High-speed backplane and chip-to-chip communications
Accelerated/offloaded Ethernet Stack
Advanced Signal Processing
Multichannel PWM, ADC, Inputs and Outputs
Arm Cortex Application Processor

Zynq-7000S SoC

Click to enlarge

Industrial Ethernet
High-speed backplane and chip-to-chip communications
Accelerated/offloaded Ethernet Stack
Advanced Signal Processing
Redundant Multichannel PWM, ADC, Inputs and Outputs
Arm Cortex Application Processor

Zynq-7000S SoC

Documentation

Intelligent IIoT Edge Platforms

Edge Analytics with Python on Zynq (PYNQ)

Deep Learning on Xilinx Devices

Functional Safety Solution Brief

Solution Stack

Some Industrial IoT products need all elements of the Xilinx IIoT Solutions Stack, all need some. The Xilinx IIoT Solutions Stack is comprised of optimized Xilinx and Ecosystem building blocks and solutions used across Industrial and Healthcare IoT platforms. Starting from scratch is never something you will have to do with a Xilinx-based Industrial IoT system. Minimize development time and cost and maximize design reuse on your next Industrial IoT platform by exploring the different elements of the Xilinx IIoT Solutions stack.