The MPC hardware environment is easy to set up; here's what you need:
1. A Moxa embedded computer connected to an Ethernet network and one or more
serial devices.
2. MPC installed on the embedded computer.
3. Drivers (written in C) for each type of serial device.
MPC has two key benefits:
1. MPC makes port-to-port communication easy
Serial and networking communication is built into the MPC engine. Users do not
need to bother programming at the hardware level. Instead, and
instead can easily build channels between ports. A channel
is a
logical path that connects two physical communication ports,
either of which could be a serial port or a network port. Data
streams can flow between a serial port and network port, between
a LAN port and the same or a different LAN port, or between two
serial ports. Without any additional programming on the part
of the end-user, the MPC engine manages transparent data transmission
along a channel that connects any combination of two communication
ports.
2. MPC is driver programmable
Port-to-port communication is driver programmable. Users can create drivers
that perform specific tasks in a channel. A driver can be a “timer”
subroutine that queries each serial device periodically, or a
program that convert protocols between devices. Most field
systems are created by making slight changes to existing systems
that are tried and true. By using the MPC engine, these changes
can be realized almost immediately by either modifying a driver,
or adding a driver to a channel. MPC supports Modbus TCP, Modbus RTU, Modbus ASCII, and RFC-2217. MPC also allows solution developers to add proprietary protocols and applications.
