Beckhoff’s new second generation CX2000 series, the CX2030 and CX2040 Embedded PCs, implement an essential new feature: multicore processors. With this boost in performance, these controllers explore performance areas previously reserved for larger, cabinet-mounted industrial PCs. A further essential feature is the internal extension bus, based on PCI Express the system interfaces are connected with the full bandwidth of a PCI Express lane.
As in the first generation, the new CX2000 devices consist of individual components that can order separately and assembled in the field by plug and play. The CX2000 housing concept combines a metallic basic housing with front panels made of a special screening plastic.
The basic CPU module from the new CX series has one DVI port, four USB ports and two Ethernet ports. A factory-configurable internal slot known as a ‘magic interface’ can optionally perform the function of a wide range of interfaces: fieldbus master and slave implementations are possible here, eg, for EtherCAT (slave), Profinet, EtherNet/IP, Profibus, CANopen and DeviceNet, as well as serial interfaces (RS232/RS422/RS485).
The modularity of the CX2000 devices is based on the PCI Express bus system and offers a bandwidth of 5 gigatransfers per second (GT/s) per PCIe TX/RX channel. This enables the connection of a wide variety of interfaces; for example, a maximum of four modules each with two independent Ethernet 1 Gbit ports can be connected. Alternately, up to eight serial interfaces can be connected, which are each implemented in pairs as RS232 or RS422/RS485. The number of possible USB interfaces can also be multiplied: four high-speed (480 MB/s) USB 2.0 interfaces can be connected per module.
The Embedded PC is a convergence of standardised PC technology with ‘DIN rail-friendly’ features to form a flexible industrial controller. On the hardware side the devices from the CX2000 series offer I/O support and a direct connection for Beckhoff Bus and EtherCAT terminals. On the software side, the new CX generation also continues to support Microsoft operating systems in the form of Windows Embedded Standard 7 or Windows 8, depending upon availability. The multi-core capability of the new CX2000 generation is optimised for use with the new TwinCAT 3 software from Beckhoff. Now, the operating system as well as the real-time controller can be distributed across different processor cores.
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