It is not without reason that POWERLINK's user organization is called "Ethernet POWERLINK Standardization Group". POWERLINK has been setting new standards in Industrial Ethernet for years, and provides the only real-time Ethernet standard in the true sense of the word. Since POWERLINK is a software solution that relies on standard hardware components and fully standard-compliant Ethernet frames, the EPSG can truly claim to measure up to its name. The international organization fuels the enhancement and ongoing development of POWERLINK as well as marketing activities for the open, ASIC-less standard. New members joining this organization have a say in it right away and become, in a manner of speaking, "co-owners" of the most successful real-time Ethernet technology in the world. In the meantime, the protocol has won the confidence and commitment of more than 450 supporters, manufacturers and users, resulting in over 90,000 POWERLINK series machines in use worldwide.