Yaskawa Electric : Europe Subsidiary Profichip Commercializes Multi-Protocol Communication ASIC with MECHATROLINK Protocol

Yaskawa Electric Corporation (head office: Kitakyushu, Fukuoka; Representative Director and President: Hiroshi Ogasawara) is pleased to announce that profichip, a subsidiary of YASKAWA Europe GmbH (Yaskawa Europe), has commercialized 'ANTAIOS', a multi-protocol communication ASIC with MECHATROLINK* protocol.

To manufacture various products and volumes with high added value in real time, the manufacturing industry has been accelerating its efforts to cope with Industry 4.0 and IoT. Within such an environment, compatibility with various networks for industrial machinery is a crucial challenge and the preparation of dedicated hardware (such as ASICs) for each network has been a considerable burden. However, remarkable progress in semiconductor manufacturing technology has enabled the commercialization of ASICs which are compatible to multiple networks.

'ANTAIOS', an ASIC for multi-protocol communication commercialized by profichip, is equipped with an advanced real-time Ethernet switch and uses the company's proprietary microcode and software stack to offer connectivity, not only with MECHATROLINK-III Master/Slave recommended by Yaskawa, PROFINET IO device RT/IRT*, EtherCAT Slaves*, and EtherNet/IP adapters (under development) *. 'ANTAIOS' also supports other networks such as Profibus*, CANopen and RS-485, as well as USB. A single 'ANTAIOS' multi-protocol communication ASIC will enable users to have available multiple choices in network connections.

Multi-protocol communication ASIC 'ANTAIOS' will allow users to have one common hardware design for high-performance networks with PLCs, servos, drives, I/O, sensors, and gateways.

Yaskawa will continue to expand sales of profichip products in Japanese market as well as in global market. Yaskawa will also employ the multi-protocol communication ASIC 'ANTAIOS' for its products to promptly deal with MECHATROLINK and other various networks to strengthen the initiatives to accommodate market changes, such as Industry 4.0 and IoT which are expected to accelerate.