A system component having a configurable communication behavior. The system component includes at least one interface for a data bus for the communication with at least one further system component. A defined communications protocol for the transmitting and receiving of data and bus commands is used on the data bus. The communications protocol provides that the at least one further system component queries the communication behavior of the system component via the data bus to adapt its own communication behavior to that of the system component. The system component includes a register for configuration data that define the communication behavior of the system component on the data bus, the register being connected to the data bus so that the configuration data stored in the register are available on the data bus. The function scope of the system component allows for different communication behaviors.

An electronic device includes a driver circuit embodied on an IC chip. The driver circuit includes a threshold voltage selection circuit that is coupled to receive a horn comparator threshold setting and to use the horn comparator threshold setting to provide a horn comparator threshold voltage. The driver circuit also includes a comparator that has a non-inverting input coupled to a first pin and an inverting input coupled to receive the horn comparator threshold voltage.

A method for operating a wireless field-device network, comprising: wirelessly transmitting a process variable and an expected remaining running time from each field device to the other field devices within a field-device network so that in each field device the process variable and the expected remaining running time of the other field devices of the field-device network are stored; activating a second radio module of that field device which has the highest expected remaining running time, and deactivating the second radio modules of the other field devices within the field-device network; wirelessly transmitting the process variables of all field devices of the field-device network stored in the active field device, or at least a subset of the stored process variables, to the superordinate unit, which is not part of the field-device network, by means of the second radio module of the active field device.

A method and associated system, includes implementing a controller, configured to communicate, over a communication network, with a plurality of highly-versatile field devices coupled to the controller. The method and system also include configuring the network to facilitate communication of traffic over an advanced physical layer (APL) medium. One or more APL power switches are configured to provide connectivity to other devices and each includes a power supply to provide power via the medium. One or more APL field switches, each receiving power from a power switch, are configured to distribute both communication signals and power signals to field devices communicatively coupled to a respective field switch. The method further includes configuring a network resource management component to manage network resources to facilitate communication over the network of traffic that includes both managed traffic, of which the management component is aware, and unmanaged traffic, of which the management component is not aware.

A method and associated system, includes implementing a controller, configured to communicate, over a communication network, with a plurality of highly-versatile field devices coupled to the controller. The method and system also include configuring the network to facilitate communication of traffic over an advanced physical layer (APL) medium. One or more APL power switches are configured to provide connectivity to other devices and each includes a power supply to provide power via the medium. One or more APL field switches, each receiving power from a power switch, are configured to distribute both communication signals and power signals to field devices communicatively coupled to a respective field switch. The method further includes configuring a network resource management component to manage network resources to facilitate communication over the network of traffic that includes both managed traffic, of which the management component is aware, and unmanaged traffic, of which the management component is not aware.

A control system includes a master device and one or a plurality of slave devices connected to the master device via a field network. In a storage unit of each slave device, a node address is arranged in a unique region for each model of the slave devices. The control system further includes an information providing part which provides, in any slave device, information for specifying the region in which the node address is stored in the storage unit to the master device.

Disclosed is a home bus system (HBS) circuit, applicable to home bus (HB) communication implemented using a Microchip chip. The circuit includes the Microchip chip, an HBS communication chip, a resistor, a capacitor, and a transistor, the Microchip chip includes a universal asynchronous receiver/transmitter (UART) input pin and a serial peripheral interface (SPI) output pin, and the HBS communication chip includes an input pin. The transistor has a base coupled to the SPI output pin and a first end of the capacitor, a collector coupled to a first end of the resistor and the input pin of the HBS communication chip, and an emitter grounded, wherein a second end of the resistor is coupled to a power supply, and a second end of the capacitor is grounded.

A single-wire bus (SuBUS) apparatus is provided. The SuBUS apparatus includes a master circuit coupled to a slave circuit(s) by a SuBUS. The master circuit can enable or suspend a SuBUS telegram communication over the SuBUS. When the master circuit suspends the SuBUS telegram communication over the SuBUS, the slave circuit(s) may draw a charging current via the SuBUS to perform a defined slave operation. Notably, the master circuit may not have knowledge about exact completion time of the defined slave operation and thus may be unable to resume the SuBUS telegram communication in a timely manner. The slave circuit(s) can be configured to generate a predefined interruption pulse sequence to cause the master circuit to resume the SuBUS telegram communication over the SuBUS. As such, it may be possible for the master circuit to quickly resume the SuBUS telegram communication, thus helping to improve throughput of the SuBUS.

A GPU Box server cascade communication method, device, and system. The method includes: detecting an i2c communication bus through a baseboard management controller (BMC) in a powered-up GPU Box server to determine whether a next-stage GPU Box server corresponding to the GPU Box server exists, and if yes, reading an IP address and location information of the next-stage GPU Box server from the i2c communication bus by means of the BMC in the GPU Box server; and storing the IP address and the location information of the next-stage GPU Box server into a data structure of the GPU Box server so that a master control server reads the data structure of the GPU Box server, and establishing network communication with the next-stage GPU Box server according to the IP address and the location information stored in the data structure.

An EtherCAT device with a node for use in an EtherCAT network is disclosed. The EtherCAT device includes: a clock circuit; a clock input to receive an input clock signal; a clock output to send an output clock signal; and control logic. The control logic is to determine whether to operate the EtherCAT device in a clock generation mode or a clock propagation mode, wherein in the clock generation mode, the clock circuit is to drive an oscillator to generate the input clock signal; and in the clock propagation mode, the clock circuit is to receive the input clock signal from another node in the EtherCAT network. The control logic is further to control the clock circuit to output the output clock signal for a subsequent node in the EtherCAT network based upon the input clock signal.