6 Conclusion

CAN is ideally suited in applications requiring a large number of short messages with high reliability in rugged operating environments. Because CAN is message based and not address based, it is especially well suited when data is needed by more than one location and system-wide data consistency is mandatory.

Fault confinement is also a major benefit of CAN. Faulty nodes are automatically dropped from the bus, which prevents any single node from bringing a network down, and ensures that bandwidth is always available for critical message transmission. This error containment also allows nodes to be added to a bus while the system is in operation, otherwise known as hot-plugging.

The many features of the TI CAN transceivers make them ideally suited for the many rugged applications to which the CAN protocol is being adapted. Among the applications finding solutions with CAN are automobiles, trucks, motorcycles, snowmobiles trains, buses, airplanes, agriculture, construction, mining, and marine vehicles.