As part of the collaboration, Kvaser says it has benefited from Microchip’s integration expertise and test capabilities and notes the two companies are working together to test and develop improvements to Kvaser’s CAN FD technology.
CAN FD – flexible data rate – is an extension to the original CAN protocol that allows for a higher data rate and larger packet size. While a standard CAN network is limited to 1Mbit/s, with a maximum payload of 8byte/frame, CAN FD increases the effective data rate by allowing up to 64byte/frame without changing the CAN PHY. According to Kvaser, CAN FD can produce a ‘realistic bandwidth gain’ of at least three times what’s possible in CAN.
Lars-Berno Fredriksson, Kvaser’s president, said: “Kvaser is proud to support Microchip’s CAN FD developments – this is great validation of the work we have been doing in preparation for CAN FD.”
Orlando Esparza, Microchip’s CAN FD product line marketing manager, added: “Microchip has a good and long standing relationship with Kvaser, helping to minimise our device development cycle times. As a result, we have been able to quickly make design adjustments to meet ISO specification changes and requirements and plan to begin the roll out of controller products mid 2016.” Microchip has already released a number of automotive approved physical layer CAN FD transceivers.
