Avnet KNX Stack

Avnet KNX Stack Development Solution for Infineon XMC

Stack implementation for KNX

The bus system KNX has evolved to become one of the most important solutions in the field of home and building electronic systems. It is an approved European (EN) and International (ISO) standard. The KNX Standard defines a complex communication protocol that requires a significant investment in terms of both implementation and certification.

Avnet Silica therefore contracted its partner Weinzierl to develop a new KNX Stack NGS offering a fully certified platform to develop bus devices in a very effective manner. Compared to legacy solutions you can radically reduce the typical development time, especially for complex applications.

Key features

• System software for KNX devices
• KNX Media: 
  • Twisted pair (TP)
  • Radio Frequency (RF)
  • Ethernet (IP)
• Configuration method:
  • System mode (ETS)
• KNX device model:
  • System B
• Source-Code in “C”
• Evaluation boards
• Software tools
• ETS support
• KNX certified

Hardware architecture

The core of a KNX device utilizes a micro­controller that implements both the bus communication (KNX protocol) in addition to the application task. A new release is now available for Infineon XMC

Infineon XMC

The XMC™ microcontroller family from Infineon is based on the popular ARM® Cortex®-M0/M4 cores. The bus access to KNX can be implemented via a standard KNX UART Transceiver.
Because of the simple device design the pro-duction costs are typically very low. Various evaluation boards help you to get started.

Firmware architecture

The firmware offers a very lean system specially designed for the needs of KNX bus devices. It includes not only the communication stack, but also a complete implementation of the standardized device model, called System B.
Any KNX resources like memory or properties are fully emulated by the firmware. So compatibility to the ETS software is achieved without any restrictions. The source code is modular, documented in detail and can be included as part of the delivery. The application development is based on an easy to use KNX API.

Tool environment

Via the scripting tool kScript the KNX Stack NGS provides a model driven approach for application development. Via an application description in Python syntax kScript generates the database entry for ETS software as well as configuration and header files for the KNX Stack. The fully integrated workflow reduces development time and eases the change management. For efficient debugging, the tool TraceMon is included in the package. With the tool environment Net’n Node you get a powerful Bus monitor that helps you during development and test.

Related Infineon evaluation boards

XMC1400 Boot kit 

• Order Number: KIT_XMC14_BOOT_001
• XMC1404 Microcontroller based on ARM® Cortex®-M0

XMC4700 Relax kit 

• Order Number: KIT_XMC47_RELAX_V1 
• XMC4700-F144 Microcontroller based on ARM® Cortex®-M4 @ 144MHz, 2MB Flash and 352KB RAM