SwiftNet 　　the really fast, truly synchronous fieldbus　　　　A Brief Introduction to SwiftNet 　　　　SwiftNet is the modern, high performance fieldbus. It was created to satisfy Boeing Commercial Airplane"s need for a truly synchronous, very high  eed (an unequaled 85K samples/sec) flight data bus. 　　　　SwiftNet goes well beyond this mi ion, as it also locks the local clocks of all fieldbus nodes together and time stam  all alarms and alerts at their source, to eliminate time aliasing of event reports. This effectively eliminates the jitter and irregular schedules that loom so large in popular fieldbuses. 　　　　Uniquely SwiftNet provides synchronous global, group and individual triggers to stimulate device actio . Because triggers use each device"s local clock, they do not reduce the data tra fer rate on the bus. 　　　　These highly desirable behaviors result from the SwiftNet"s use of a structured, synchronous (TDMA) bus protocol which eliminates addre es from all packets and guarantees synchronous operation of all nodes. The Producer Co umer paradigm further improves both performance and flexibility. 　　　　SwiftNet su orts a variety of a lication protocols, including FMS and ControlNet/DeviceNet Objects. A highly efficient granulation protocol su orts a lication data packets that range from 64 to 896 bytes. A lication packets do not disturb data tra fer timing. 　　　　Currently bus lengths and  eeds for RS485 range between: 　　　　Maximum length of an U ridged Fieldbus     Bus Data Rate　　 4800 meters                             2.4 to 76 K 　　 340 meters                              5 M 　　 　　  Fiber Optic media are also su orted. 　　　　Bus configuration is totally end-user defined. It is automatically performed and checked each time the bus is powered-on. This allows easy conversion between mi io , as in laboratory or test environments. 　　　　SwiftNet also synchronizes multiple bridged networks with up to 30,000,000 nodes and up to 100,000,000 total variables. Synchronism between nodes is maintained to an unmatched 50 &;#61549 ec. 　　　　SwiftNet and Enterprise Networks 　　　　SwiftNet is an ideal interface between devices and enterprise networks that use IP or other network protocols, since it maintai  fieldbus schedules and synchronism without software intervention. 　　　　This effectively eliminates the effect of network delays on device performance and data/event reports and hel  compe ate for non real-time operating systems such as Windows NT. 　　　　SwiftNet Architecture 　　　　SwiftNet"s low cost architecture uses a SwiftNet ASIC with a DPRAM interface to each smart i trument"s microproce or. This ASIC performs all protocol functio  to guarantee true interoperability between vendors. This a roach su tantially reduces device cost, size and power co umption. 　　　　Host devices use the SwiftNet ASIC along with a block of memory for each field device. As device counts rise, a host can co ume significant resources. 　　　　SwiftNet A licatio  　　　　SwiftNet shines in a licatio  that need one or more of the following characteristics: 　　　　high  eed, 　　synchronous data acquisition or control, 　　high point count, 　　wide area coverage and/or need an interface to enterprise networks. 　　Some a licatio  where SwiftNet is a clear favorite include: 　　　　flight test, 　　flight simulation, 　　fly by wire, 　　direct numerical control, 　　operation of complex machines and systems 　　oil platforms, 　　oil fields &; wells, 　　exploration, 　　undersea, 　　mining, 　　office complexes, 　　any campus and 　　tra ortation systems. 　　　　SwiftNet Properties 　　SwiftNet is a very high efficiency / high scan rate, truly-synchronous fieldbus. 　　SwiftNet allows very high  eed analog I/O (up to 85,000 16 bit samples per sec. at a 5 M  data rate) to share one bus with a large number of discrete I/O points. This is more than 5 times faster than any other fieldbus. 　　　　SwiftNet minimizes and tightly controls timing jitter and the bad effects of bus overhead on synchronous sca ing. The worst-case deviation from synchronous operation is 0.9% of the minimum scan period. This is more than an order of magnitude below other fieldbuses. 　　　　SwiftNet has all the features found/needed in modern fieldbuses, as outlined below. 　　　　Within simple devices, SwiftNet is fully implemented in one common SwiftNet ASIC (no software required) for easy of implementation, true interoperability and low cost devices. 　　　　SwiftNet Features 　　　　·Maximum Synchronous Sca ing rate allowed by the media in use 　　·Triggers to Synchronize devices with each other and with the scan cycle 　　·Minimum Jitter and Scheduling Error 　　·One Producer of Sca ed Data with N Co umers allowed 　　·Configurable Scan Data Length Time stamping of Alarms &; Errors in devices　　·Common Bus Time is available in all devices 　　·Su ort for general A lication protocols - FMS, CIP-Object Oriented and other packetized with 64 to 1792 bytes of A lication protocol "data" 　　·Completely User configurable 　　·SwiftNet software is not required for tra ferring &; configuring Sca ed Data or maintaining bus synchronism and triggers 　　·Su orts very large, synchronous Bridged networks　　·Maintai  network wide Common Time &; Time Stamping 　　·SwiftNet is an IEC (International) Standard　　　　SwiftNet is included as Type 6 in the IEC 61158 standard.　　　　Benefiting from SwiftNet 　　　　SwiftNet was designed by SHIP STAR A ociates in re o e to a solicitation from Boeing. SHIP STAR is now seeking partners to participate in developing and commercializing SwiftNet for use by Boeing and others.