Today’s technological advancements call
for components that are more and more integrated, density of finished
products increased, and the use of off-board programming components is
less and less common in designs. Additionally, traditional off-system
programming and/or configurations have become cumbersome in manufacturing
for several reasons: unprogrammed and programmed components to manage
in the inventory, labelling required … Today, in-system programming
is the solution for the customization of complex products. Along with
each new product generation comes greater intelligence involving growing
amounts of data to be integrated.
Traditional tools for off-system device
level programming or in-system programming with small amounts of data at a
slow rate, are no longer adequate for today’s manufacturing processes.
FDDT from ELIOS offers a unique
solution responding to the need of fast in-system data downloading.
FDDT hardware is based on ELIOS’
high-speed communication catalog products. ELIOS’ teams of system
integration and software engineers, who normally develop custom
applications, have specially designed a standardized solution that has
been on-site operationally validated,
and created with flexibility to customize according to particular
manufacturing constraints.
ELC8 boards have been selected for data
processing and transfers. Additionally, their availability is guaranteed
for at least 5 years by ELIOS. Their technical features are described
in a flyer available by request. Each ELC8 handles up to 8 serial
ports. FDDT can be built with up to 5 ELC8 integrated in an industrial
PC and the whole system is packaged in a 19" cabinet. 40 products
can be downloaded simultaneously, with identical or different packs of
data.
In a Windows NT environment, several
software layers build a generic solution within its structure. They are
customized to each customer application thanks to ELIOS’ engineering know-how.
FDDT can not only perform fast data downloading but also inform about
production status, transmit alert signals, or send command to a supervisor
computer allowing FDDT to be totally integrated in your automated manufacturing
process.
FDDT offers the guarantee of an
operationally validated solution with the advantages of custom features.
FDDT is the solution for manufacturing
processes involving one or several of the following specifications:
High rates of products to be downloaded
with small amounts of data.
Large amounts of data to be downloaded per
product.
Mix of high rates of production and large
amounts of data to be downloaded.
Multiple data configurations to be
simultaneously downloaded and managed.
FDDT best fits the following
activities:
Manufacturing of electronic components to
be programmed such as Smart cards, Systems on chip, …
Manufacturing of consumer electronic devices
such as Cellular phones, Set-up boxes, Remote control automobile keys, ...
Manufacturing of professional electronic
equipment such as Telecommunication transmitters, Copy machines,...
Example of Application
Context of the application presented
as an example:
An industrial leader for the
manufacturing of cellular phones has selected ELIOS’ solution. The
system provided by ELIOS is intended to download data within the Flash
memory of the cellular telephone. ELIOS’ solution was selected due to
its unique ability to meet the requested specifications such as: low rate
of errors in data transfers, fast and simultaneous download of several
products, capability to manage different files of data according to
several commercial part numbers and limited use of the host PC. The PC is
only dedicated to perform production statistics and quality calculations
and is used as a human-machine interface.
The very first FDDT in a manufacturing
facility has been in operation since the beginning of 1999. This
solution is working in more than 100 countries.
Hardware configuration:
PC compatible host.
Up to 5 serial communication modules
ELIOS’ ELC8, each one can manage 8 serial lines.
19" cabinet.
Mechanical interfaces to host products under
manufacturing.
Electrical interfaces from ELIOS.
Standard software:
Windows NT for the host PC.
Real Time OS, ELIOS’ ELC8 Drivers and Handlers.
FDDT software:
ODS - Optimal Downloading Software:
Software embedded in the target product to handle transfer commands.
RDP - Real-time Downloading Program:
ELC8 RT program for parallel transfers.
EWI - ELC8 and Windows NT Interface:
DLL used to interface MMS with RDPs.
MMS - Manufacturing Management Software:
Software used to manage production batches in connection with the global
manufacturing software.
CDB - Command and Data file Builder:
Tool used to build files to be downloaded according to products’ commercial
specifications.
Environmental specifications:
EMC compliant.
220 VAC power supply.
System architecture:
Main performances of the application:
Maximum size of data and command files imported
from PC host boards: 13 Mo.
Quantity of simultaneous downloading per
FDDT: up to 40 cellular phones.
Mix of generic as well as product specific
data during a unique downloading.
Duration of a typical file downloading into
the product under manufacturing: less than a minute.
