A3053 Embedded Ethernet Module provides a wired network connection and fast logic interface for a scientific instrument, an industrial process controller, or a piece of test equipment. The A3053 is built on an industry-standard mPCIe card. It mounts to one of the electronic circuit boards in the host instrument and communicates with the host board logic through its mPCIe pins, and with the local area network through an RJ-45 socket provided by the host board. The A3053 is powered by a PIC32MZ2048EFH microcontroller, and provides a versatile, high-speed logic interface for communication with its host.

This interface unlocks a wide array of new functionality. You could use it to implement a sixteen-bit parallel interface with 50-ns access time, or to create multiple 20 Mbps synchronous serial ports. If you add a Power-over-Ethernet converter to your instrument, you can provide both power and communication with a single cable connected to a PoE switch. Because communication with the A3053 takes place over TCP/IP, you have no need of special software drivers for different computer operating systems. When you program the A3053 with our free, open-source P3053 software, you can use Telnet to connect to the module immediately and interact with a built-in command line interface.

Features and Specifications

• Powered by a 200 MHz PIC32MZ2048EFH-100 microcontroller
• mPCIe compatible form factor (40 pins, some can be used as 12-bit ADC inputs)
• 10/100-BaseT Ethernet physical interface
• Full TCP/IP stack that provides download at over 6 MByte/s
• Supports sixteen-bit data, sixteen-bit address bus with 50-ns access time
• Supports serial interfaces with 20 Mbps data rate
• On-board diagnostic UART console interface
• Four user-programmable LED indicators
• Full-featured demonstration software
• Demonstration board available for test and assessment
• Program in C from command line with Makefile
• Pin-compatible with the discontinued RCM6700 Ethernet module

Network Your Most Important Equipment

The A3053 Embedded Ethernet Module is designed to provide fast communication with the logic circuits of its host board. We list three example applications below. The A3053 is still a new design, but we have been able to deploy it in pre-existing instruments where we previously used the discontinued RCM6700 module. In each of our examples, the A3053 communicates with its host board through a parallel bus. The access time of the parallel bus varies from one host board to the next, being limited by the host board logic, not by the A3053’s 200 MHz PIC32MZ microcontroller. The A3053 can support sixteen-bit data and address access times less than 50 ns.

• Telemetry Control Box (TCB-A16) Host Board. The TCB-A16 is a sixteen-antenna telemetry receiver with sixteen independent detector modules, as well as programmable logic to read them out and an SRAM buffer to store them in. The A3053 controls the host board logic and reads out the SRAM buffer using its eight-bit parallel bus. The A3053 detects the depression of various switches on the host board by reading registers from the host board logic.

• TCP/IP to VME Interface (A2087) Host Board. Here the A3053 provides TCP/IP interface with a VME crate backplane. The PIC32MZ on the A3053 module reads out the VME backplane through a sixteen-bit data bus with a thirty-two-bit address bus.

• LWDAQ Driver with Ethernet Interface (A2071E) Host Board. The A3053 communicates with the host board logic to control and read out Long-Wire Data Acquisition devices plugged into the A2071. These devices are typically optical metrology cameras and light sources, so the A3053 spends most of its time uploading images to our data acquisition computer. The A3053's top speed for image transfer is around 6 MByte/s.

Open Source

The A3053 Embedded Ethernet Module circuit design is open-source, distributed under the GNU Public License 3.0 (GPL3), copyright Open Source Instruments. The A3053DB Demonstration Board is distributed under both the GPL3 and MIT licenses. The MIT license allows you to incorporate the PoE and RJ-45 circuits of the A3053DB into your own proprietary instrument design without making your own design open-source. For a detailed description of the A3053 assemblies, see the A3053 User Manual. For schematics, design files, component data sheets, and a detailed and up-to-date account of the development of the A3053 assemblies, see the A3053 Design and Development page.

The P3053 software we provide for the A3053 is a combination of open-source code written by Open Source Instruments and free-use software provided by Microchip Technology. To convert the repository to free-use so that you can keep your A3053 software private, study our GPL3 source files and then delete them from your repository. Replace them with top-level files you have written yourself for your particular application. You will be left only with your own private files and the free-use files provided Microchip Technology. See the Licensing and Copyright chapter of the A3053 user manual for more details.

Interested in This Project?

You can sign up at the top of this page to be notified when the campaign launches and to receive other updates. We only send out relevant content, and you can unsubscribe at any time.