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News Release from: Fieldbus Foundation | Subject: AT-442 Pro
Edited by the Engineeringtalk Editorial Team on 14 November 2003

High praise for high-speed Ethernet
toolkit

The Fieldbus Foundation's AT-442 Pro high-speed Ethernet packet analyser toolkit has received an automation excellence award from IAN Magazine.

The Fieldbus Foundation's AT-442 Pro high speed Ethernet (HSE) packet analyser toolkit has received an automation excellence award from IAN Magazine The award recognises the innovative features of the new professional version toolkit, and is another indication of the growing global market demand for HSE

The AT-442 is the latest tool designed for use with the Fieldbus Foundation's best-in-class HSE technology.

Running at 100Mbit/s, HSE was voted "product of the year" by Control Engineering Magazine and named one of the "10 best new products" by the ARC Advisory Group.

HSE supports subsystem interoperability, advanced control and batch hybrid automation, and enables "sensors to the boardroom" data integration.

This provides end users with the freedom to choose and the power to integrate across the enterprise.

Previously, the Fieldbus Foundation released the AT-440 toolkit to expedite the development of HSE-based fieldbus products.

The AT-442 professional version retains the HSE packet analyser, HSE device implementation guide and sample HSE field device from the original toolkit, but also includes new, essential features that guide developers through the device development process.

These include simultaneous dual-port capture, an enhanced live list view with per device statistics, and a sample HSE stack source code.

According to Stephen Mitschke, Fieldbus Foundation Product Manager-Fieldbus Products, the automation excellence award for the AT-442 demonstrates that market interest in HSE products is on the rise.

"Controls and instrumentation suppliers around the world are now moving forward with development programs for HSE field devices and linking devices in response to end user support for this enabling technology", said Mitschke.

"The AT-442 gives suppliers a royalty-free, licensed sample source code to jump start HSE device development.

It is an advanced toolkit that automates many aspects of the device development process and allows for significant reductions in time-to-market".

Mitschke added that the recent registration of HSE linking devices from Rockwell Automation and National Instruments is evidence that the world's leading automation equipment suppliers are now undertaking full-fledged HSE development programmes.

To date, the Fieldbus Foundation has registered a total of 11 HSE linking devices.

With two network interface cards, the AT-442 toolkit allows developers to simultaneously capture frames from a redundant HSE fieldbus network from a single application.

Advanced filtering permits viewing of real-time captures from each interface separately, or in a synchronised integrated display.

Additionally, the toolkit's enhanced live list displays either a simple or detailed view of all HSE devices participating on the HSE network.

Color-coded fields allow easy monitoring of device statistics and states for numerous devices.

The AT-442's HSE-specific Ethernet packet analyser, which is Windows 98/Me/2000/NT/XP compatible, speeds troubleshooting by providing real-time decoding and display of HSE messages into plain text (including errors).

Its symbolic message search also makes it easy to pinpoint messages of interest.

The packet analyser can filter by address or message type to allow capture of user-defined traffic for analysis, and pre- and post-filtering makes finding specific messages easy.

Plus, users can save and load HSE fieldbus message captures for later analysis.

A continuous message capture feature allows hands-free monitoring.

The AT-442's example HSE field device implementation, running new multiple I/O flexible function blocks, provides device annunciation and publishing features essential for learning the HSE protocol and efficient debugging.

Running on any standard Windows PC with any standard Ethernet interface, the field device produces messages that have been validated to be correct.

In addition, the HSE design example provided with the toolkit offers an overview tutorial on the Fieldbus Foundation's integrated architecture, including a top-level design example based on a real device implementation.

It also provides the message structures for all HSE messages, including ASCII C header files.

A free demo of the AT-442 toolkit can be downloaded from the Fieldbus Foundation website.

An upgrade is also available for owners of the AT-440 analyser toolkit.

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