®
FT 6000
Smart Transceivers for the IzoTTM Platform
• Low-cost surface mount FT-X3
Communications Transformer.
• Supports polarity-insensitive free
topology star, daisy chain, bus, loop,
or mixed topology wiring. Very high
common-mode noise immunity.
• User-programmable interrupts ,
hardware UART, 12 I/O pins with 35
programmable standard I/O models
• Flash file system for data logging and
other applications requiring persistent
storage
• Unique 48-bit IEEE MAC ID
• 7 mm x 7 mm 48-pin QFN package,
-40°C to +85°C.
The FT 6000 Smart Transceiver family
integrates a high-performance Neuron®
core with a free topology twisted-pair
transceiver. Combined with the proven
FT-X3 Communications Transformer and
inexpensive flash memory, the FT 6000
Smart Transceivers provide a very flexible,
low-cost, feature enhanced LONWORKS
or IzoT/IP or BACnet/IP solution all within
the same device.
The FT6000 series Smart Transceiver
includes three independent 8-bit logical
processors to manage the physical
MAC layer, the network, and the user
application. These are called the MediaAccess Control (MAC) processor, the
network (NET) processor, and the
Preliminary
Comm
Port
Serial
Memory
Interface
IRQ CPU
5
/
External
Transformer
APP CPU
RAM
(64K x 8)
NET CPU
ROM
(16K x 8)
MAC CPU
Clock, Reset,
and Service
JTAG
SVC~
• Supports up to 254 Network Variables
(NVs) and 127 aliases. up to 254
address table entries (16-fold increase)
2-6
/
I/O
RST~
• Support for larger external flash
memories, up to 256KB applications
12
/
XOUT
• 3.3V operation. 80MHz system clock,
64KB RAM and 16KB ROM on-chip
memories
application (APP) processor, respectively
(see Figure 1). At higher system clock
rates, a fourth processor called the IRQ
CPU can be used to handle interrupts.
XIN
FT 6000 Key Features
The FT 6000 family of Smart
Transceivers is the next-generation
system-on-chips for modernizing and
consolidating smart control networks.
It is a key product in Echelon’s IzoT™
platform — the most comprehensive
and open control networking platform
for the Industrial Internet of Things
NVM
(IIoT). It offers options for backward
(SPI)
compatibility with LONWORKS® while
adding native IP addressing at the
device level and consolidating multiple
control protocols on the same device
carried over the reliable and proven Free
Topology channel. It is designed to bring
unprecedented flexibility and openness
while lowering development and
device costs.
5
Figure 1: FT 6000
Smart Transceiver Chip
The FT 6000 Smart Transceiver supports
polarity-insensitive cabling using a star,
bus, daisy-chain, loop, or combination
topology (see Figure 2). Thus, installers
don’t have to follow a strict set of wiring
rules imposed by other networking
technologies. Instead, they can install
wiring in the fastest and most costeffective manner, thereby saving time and
www.echelon.com
money. Free topology wiring also simplifies network expansion
by eliminating restrictions on wire routing, splicing, and device
placement. The FT 6000 extends all the benefits of Free
Topology wiring to IP devices, allowing an efficient multi-drop
IP capability where multiple IP devices can be very simply
connected in any topology without the need for switches or
hubs.
the IzoT NodeBuilder Software before they can be used with
the FT 6000 Smart Transceiver.
The FT 6000 series Smart Transceiver uses Neuron firmware
version 21 or later. Firmware versions prior to version 21
are not compatible with the FT 6000 Smart Transceiver. The
Neuron firmware is loaded into RAM from off-chip flash. The FT
6000 Smart Transceiver firmware can be upgraded over the
network.
LonTalk Stack
over FT
LonTalk IP
Stack over FT
BACnet IP
over FT
Any IP
over FT
Applica'on
Layer
14908‐1
L4‐L6
Figure 2: FT Free Topology Network Configurations
The FT-X3 Communications Transformer is a surface mount
communications transformer that is compatible with both
the FT 6000 Smart Transceiver and the previous-generation
FT 5000/FT 3120/FT 3150 Smart Transceivers. The FT-X3
Communications Transformer provides equivalent noise
immunity to both the FT-X1 and FT-X2 Communication
Transformers, the previous-generation communication
transformers. However, the FT-X3 Communications
Transformer is not pin-compatible with the FT-X2
Communication Transformer (which is also a surface mount
transformer). The FT 6000 Smart Transceiver can also be used
with the FT-X1 and FT-X2 Communication Transformers.
Multi-protocol Operation, Future Proofing and
Backward Compatibility
The FT 6000 supports up to four different modes of operation,
as shown in Figure 3, allowing device makers unprecedented
flexibility in creating control devices for a wide variety of
applications using one common development effort. Backward
compatibility and future proofing can both be met using a
common platform based on the FT 6000 family.
The FT 6000 series Smart Transceiver is fully compliant with
the TP/FT-10 channel and can communicate with devices that
use Echelon’s FTT-10/FTT-10A Transceivers, FT 3120/FT 3150
Smart Transceivers, or LPT-10/LPT-11 Link Power Transceivers.
The Neuron core in the FT 6000 series Smart Transceiver uses
the same instruction set and architecture as the previousgeneration Neuron core, including instructions for hardware
multiplication and division. The Series 6000 Neuron core is
source code compatible with applications written for the Series
5000 and 3100 Neuron core. Applications written for the
Series 5000 and 3100 Neuron Core must be recompiled with
BACnet/IP
14908‐1
L2‐L3
IP
14908‐1
MAC
14908‐1
MAC
(modified)
14908‐2
PHY
FT 6000 Chip
Figure 3: FT 6000 Modes of Operation
In the “LonTalk Stack over FT” mode, the FT 6000 runs the
complete LonTalk stack and is fully backward compatible with
devices running the LonTalk stack, including devices based
on the Neuron 3120, Neuron 3150 or FT 3120/3150/5000
Smart Transceiver.
In the “LonTalk IP stack over FT” mode, the FT 6000 preserves
the services offered by LonTalk layers 4-7, replacing layers 2-3
with UDP/IP. This allows the creation of devices that are fully
compatible with LonTalk applications while supporting native IP
addressing at the device level. In this mode, the network layer
has been enhanced to support translation between LonTalk
addresses and IP addresses in a manner that is transparent to
both the LonTalk application above and the FT network below.
This allows LonTalk compatible applications to run unmodified
over Free Topology wiring while gaining IP addressing at the
device level.
In the “BACnet/IP over FT” mode, LonTalk layers 4-6 services
are used to create BACnet/IP devices borrowing from a
rich set of LONMARK® services and profiles. LONMARK
compatible applications can now run unmodified over a very
reliable Free Topology channel, and present their LONMARK
interfaces as native BACnet Objects thus pushing BACnet/
IP all the way down to the simplest of devices. Provisioning
and commissioning of BACnet/IP devices is now possible
with available and powerful LONWORKS commissioning tools.
Devices thus provisioned are fully compatible and discoverable
using industry standard, BTL certified, BACnet management
clients.
And finally, in the “Any IP over FT” mode, the FT 6000 allows
any control protocol to be modernized with IP addressing
transported over the proven Free Topology channel.
Enhanced Performance
Fast system clock. The internal system clock for the FT 6000
Smart Transceiver can be user-configured to run from 5MHz
to 80MHz. The required external crystal provides a 10MHz
clock frequency, and an internal PLL boosts the frequency to a
maximum of 80MHz as the internal system clock speed. The
fast clock is the same as what is available with the FT 5000;
however, the Neuron 3120/3150 core divided the external
oscillator frequency by two to create the internal system clock.
An FT 6000 (or FT 5000) Smart Transceiver running with an
80MHz internal system clock is thus 16 times faster than a
10MHz Neuron 3120/3150 core.
The 5MHz internal system clock mode in the FT 6000 Smart
Transceiver provides backward compatibility to support timingcritical applications designed for the 10MHz FT 3150 or FT
3120 Smart Transceiver.
The Neuron core inside the FT 6000 Smart Transceiver
includes a built-in hardware multiplier and divider to increase
the performance of arithmetic operations.
Support for large number of network variables.
Interrupts. The FT 6000 Smart Transceiver lets developers
define application interrupts to handle asynchronous events
triggered by selected state changes on any of the 12 I/O pins,
by on-chip hardware timer-counter units, or by an on-chip
high-performance hardware system timer. An application uses
the Neuron C interrupt() clause to define the interrupt condition
and the interrupt task that handles the condition. The Neuron
C program runs the interrupt task whenever the interrupt
condition is met. See the Neuron C Programmer’s Guide for
more information about writing interrupt tasks and handling
interrupts.
Enhancements for processing IP packets:
The FT 6000 has an enhanced MAC layer that allows frame
sizes, up to 1280 bytes that allows large IP frames to be
carried over the FT channel without fragmenting the packet
which provides better bandwidth utilization of the FT channel.
Having dedicated processor contexts for the MAC and network
protocol support, allows the application to have the same
performance independent of the network traffic. Traditional
uni-processor designs running popular transceivers such as
RS-485 must be interrupted repeatedly to receive every packet
on the network, even when the packet turns out to not be
addressed to the node. This increases the demands on the
application processor and makes the amount of processing
available to the application difficult to predict as it becomes a
function of the network load.
JTAG. The FT 6000 Smart Transceiver provides an interface
for the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
Standard Test Access Port and Boundary-Scan Architecture
(IEEE 1149.1-1990) of the Joint Test Action Group (JTAG) to
allow a Series 6000 chip to be included in the boundary-scan
chain for device production tests.
I/O Pins and Counters
The FT 6000 Smart Transceiver provides 12 bidirectional I/O
pins that are 5V-tolerant and can be configured to operate in
one or more of 35 predefined standard input/output models.
The chip also has two 16-bit timer/counters that reduce the
need for external logic and software development.
Memory Architecture
The FT 6000 series Smart Transceiver eliminates the need
for external serial EEPROM that the previous generation FT
5000 required and instead relies only on inexpensive external
flash memories for non-volatile application and data storage,
and for Neuron firmware upgrades. It has 16KB of ROM and
64KB (44KB user-accessible) of RAM on the chip. It has no
on-chip non-volatile memory for application use. Each chip,
however, contains its unique identifier (IEEE MAC ID) in an
on-chip, non-volatile, read-only memory. Typical external flash
memory configuration is 512KB of which 128KB is available
for application code. This is a three-fold increase in application
size that can be hosted on the FT 6000 compared to previous
generations. Larger application sizes are possible with larger
flashes. For example, a 256KB application is possible on a 1
MB flash part.
The application code and configuration data are stored in
the external non-volatile memory (NVM) and copied into the
internal RAM during device reset; the instructions then execute
from internal RAM. Writes to NVM are shadowed in the internal
RAM and pushed out to external NVM by the Neuron firmware.
The application does not manage NVM directly.
External memories supported. The FT 6000 Smart Transceiver
supports serial peripheral interface (SPI) for accessing off-chip,
non-volatile memory.
The FT 6000 Smart Transceiver supports a variety of flash
devices from different manufacturers. Echelon has qualified
the following SPI flash memory devices for use with the FT
6000 Smart Transceiver:
Winbond W25X40CL 4-Mbit SPI Serial Flash Memory.
Memory map. The FT 6000 maps the Neuron firmware,
application code, application data, and system data to an
on-chip 64 KB RAM. The Neuron firmware, application code,
persistent data are loaded from an external serial flash
memory. The application code and persistent data can be up
to 256 KB, and is automatically swapped into and out of the
on-chip RAM by the Neuron firmware.
Programming memory devices. Because the FT 6000 Series
Smart Transceiver does not have any on-chip user-accessible
NVM, only the external flash devices need to be programmed
with the application and configuration data. The memory
devices can be programmed in any of the following ways:
• In-circuit programming on the board.
• Over the network.
• Pre-programming before soldering on the board.
Noise Immunity
A LONWORKS device based on the FT 6000 Series Smart
Transceiver is composed of two components: the FT 6000
Series Smart Transceiver and an external communications
transformer (the FT-X3). The transformer enables operation
in the presence of high frequency common-mode noise on
unshielded twisted-pair networks. Properly designed devices
can meet the rigorous Level 3 requirements of EN 610004-6 without the need for a network isolation choke. The
transformer also offers outstanding immunity from magnetic
noise, eliminating the need for protective magnetic shields in
most applications.
The FT 6000 Series Smart Transceiver and the FT-X3
Communications Transformer are designed to be used as
a pair, and therefore must be implemented together in all
designs. No transformer other than the FT-X3 (or FT-X1 or
FT-X2) communications transformer may be used with the FT
6000 Smart Transceiver or the smart transceiver warranty will
be void.
Please contact your local Echelon representative for
further details.
Odering Information
The FT 6000 is a family of transceivers: FT 6050 and FT 6010.
14450R-500 FT 6050 Smart Transceiver: Supports all four
operating modes LonTalk Stack over FT, LonTalk/IP Stack over
FT, BACnet/IP over FT and Any IP over FT
14410R-500 FT 6010 Smart Transceiver: Supports three
operating modes: LonTalk/IP Stack over FT, BACnet/IP over FT
and Any IP over FT
14255R-100 FT-X3 Communications Transformer
Migration Considerations
A typical FT 6000 Smart Transceiver-based device requires a
power source, crystal, external memory, and an I/O interface to
the device being controlled (see Figure 4 for a typical FT 6000
Smart Transceiver-based device).
Echelon provides all of the building blocks required to
successfully design and field cost-effective, robust products
based on the FT 6000 Smart Transceivers. Our end-to-end
solutions include a comprehensive set of development tools,
network interfaces, routers, and network tools. In addition,
pre-production design review services, training, and worldwide
technical support (including onsite support) are available
through Echelon’s Support technical assistance program.
Serial SPI
Flash
Sense or Control
Devices: Motors,
Valves, Lights, Relays,
Switches, Controllers
I/O
FT 6000
IzoT SoC
Crystal
(10 MHz)
External
Transformer
(FT-X3)
Power Source
LONWORKS or other Network Channel
Figure 4: Typical LONWORKS based device
Preliminary
®
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IzoT is a trademark of Echelon Corporation. Content subject to change without notice.