Title
Maximum number of Ethernet modules in a M580 system

Product Line
M580 BMENOC0301 BMENOC0321 BMENOP0300

Environment
Unity Pro 12 or higher, Control Expert

Resolution
Here below is a communication mail from global M580 PM, which states new rules in Unity Pro 12 or higher about the Ethernet module's max number.

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Dear Modicon PAC community,

I want to share with you an important information regarding the number of Ethernet modules we are now accepting in Unity Pro V12 on M580.

You may all remember my last communication on the subject last July 2016 related to the high power consumption of BMENOC modules, and its consequences in the power Budget of Unity Pro V11.1 - see below.
To insure the highest level of quality of our systems, we have continued our validation campaign around the BMENOC consumption in this new release of UP V12. Unfortunately, during this campaign, we have noticed seldom cases of Power Supply reboot after some hours due to abnormal warming of the complete configuration. Basically, we can say : on “bad” samples, the warmer it is, the higher the power consumption is on NOC, which has the direct effect to increase the heat consumption, and increasing again the power consumption, and so on in an exponential way.

This issue has forced us to create new rules in Unity Pro V12 to limit the current consumption on M580 :

Configuration Limitation of Ethernet modules for M580 High End CPU (40, 50, 60)
Max number of NOP =4
Max number of NOC CTRL =2
Max number of NOP + NOC CTRL =4
Max number of NOP + NOC CTRL + NOC Generic when at least 1 NOC Generic is used in configuration =3
Max number of Generic NOC =3

Keys:
“NOP” = BMENOP61850 : communication module for the IEC 61850 protocol, to be launched in June 2017
“NOC CTRL” = BMENOC0321 : Control NOC (with IP Forwarding function) allowing transparency
“NOC Generic” = existing BMENOC0301 or BMENOC0311


Notes :
These rules are only valid for our High End M580 CPU (level 40, 50 and 60), since for processors below, the max number of Ethernet modules is 3 or less
Generic NOCs (BMENOC0301 & BMENOC0311) are consuming more than other Ethernet modules (such as CTRL NOC BMENOC0321, BMENOS0300, ….) that why a specific limit must be applied if we use at least one of this module
There are no additional control / limit in the nb of BMXNGD0100, BMENOS0300 (limit by the number of Ethernet backplane slot), BMXNOR0200H, BMXNGD0100, BMXNRP02x1 (no specific limit) in Unity Pro – no change compared to previous versions
In case we face application that requires more Ethernet modules than indicated in the table, we are able to provide an hotfix that will permit the same limits as in Unity v11.1 We are going to deliver a Unity Pro Hot Fix to recover the limits of Unity V11.1. above (max 6, with the power over-consumption warning but no error). This hotfix can only be delivered by tech support after studying the customer application environment such as regulated ambient temperature, deactivating unused ports on NOC, optimizing traffic, leaving empty slots between generic NOCs to increase heat dissipation, etc. Once tech support has validated with the customer all of these technical points, it will be able to advise the max number of NOC and deliver the hot fix.
Compared to V11.1 there is the following difference (last line of the table) : Max number of NOP + NOC CTRL + NOC Generic = 6 knowing that with that configuration, customer has a warning in the power budget.
We do not change anything in the power budget compared to UP V11.1
The global limitation of 2 Control NOC0321 is not due to power consumption but architectural reasons

Released for:Schneider Electric Australia