Siemens has enhanced the Profinet functionality of its Simatic S7-300 and S7-400 controllers by adding Shared Device, Intelligent Device (I-Device) and Media Redundancy Protocol (MRP) functions.
According to Siemens, these features facilitate easier system configuration – for example in failsafe applications – along with leaner and more versatile topology architectures with multiple networked controllers and higher plant availability.
The new firmware on the Simatic S7-300 and S7-400 controllers also provides improved diagnostic functions via user-definable Web pages and supports isochronous mode via Profinet, says Siemens.
With Shared Device, several Simatic controllers can access a Profinet input/output device, such as a distributed I/O system. According to Siemens, this makes system configuration easier, for example in failsafe applications. It also means that both standard and failsafe CPUs can utilise the same distributed I/O system.