At Embedded World 2026, Intel presented its vision for the next generation of industrial automation: functional safety, deterministic real-time processing, and AI-driven robotics converging on a single high-performance edge platform built on the Intel® Core™ Ultra Series 3 processor. We’re proud that ISIT’s FSoE (FailSafe over EtherCAT) stack is part of that demonstration, delivering the safety communication in the functional-safety domain.
Read Intel’s solution brief here: Functional Safety, Real-Time and AI: Innovation with Intel® Core™ Ultra Series 3 Processors.
One processor, three worlds that used to need three boxes
Traditionally, safety, real-time motion control, and AI perception each lived on separate hardware. Intel’s demo consolidates all three onto one Core Ultra Series 3 SoC, using its heterogeneous compute — low-power and high-power CPU clusters, an NPU, and a GPU — to run each workload where it fits best.
On the safety side, the demo brings together the ISIT FSoE stack, the acontis EtherCAT master, and AI-based human detection. On the performance side, it runs AI object recognition, real-time AI motor control, and the GUI render engine. By partitioning these workloads across E-cores, P-cores, the NPU and the GPU, the platform keeps safety and hard-real-time tasks deterministic while AI inference runs alongside — turning what used to be a trade-off into a single, coordinated system.
ISIT’s role: certified safety over EtherCAT
In the functional-safety domain, ISIT provides the FSoE (FailSafe over EtherCAT / Safety over EtherCAT) stack. FSoE is the IEC 61784-3 safety protocol that carries safety-critical data over a standard EtherCAT network — up to SIL 3 / PLe — without the cost and complexity of a separate safety bus. Running on top of the acontis EtherCAT master, our stack lets the safety function exchange certified safety telegrams with the drives and I/O over the same real-time network used by the AI motion control.
That is exactly the kind of consolidation the most demanding applications need: collaborative robots (cobots), autonomous mobile robots (AMRs), and emerging platforms such as humanoids — where safety and AI must share the same compute, and where getting the safety communication right is non-negotiable.
Why it matters
As robots become more autonomous and work closer to people, the line between “the safety system” and “the smart system” is disappearing. Intel’s demonstration shows it is now possible to deliver certified functional safety and advanced AI on one modern edge processor — and ISIT’s protocol stacks are ready to be the safety backbone of those designs.
Want to bring certified Safety-over-EtherCAT to your Intel-based platform? Talk to our team about integrating the ISIT FSoE stack.
Source: Functional Safety, Real-Time and AI: Innovation with Intel® Core™ Ultra Series 3 Processors — Intel Industry Solution Builders, Document Library.