Thank you all for your replies. I do need both explicit and implicit messaging. Also need it to support QuickConnect which I believe is a function of my device rather than a function of the PLC (Appedix E in the Ethernet IP spec.)
I have been looking at the 1769 CompactLogix. The PLC cost was not a real big issue but from what I have determined the software required is very costly. What is the base software that would be required for the 1769 CompactLogix?
A bit of history, I currently use emulation software to emulate the function of the PLC but would like to test the product on a real PLC before release or compliance testing. This really became a concern when QuickConnect was added to our spec which requires me to do testing to make sure the device can add itself to a EIP network in less than 500ms.