The requirements for Programmable Logic Controllers are increasing continuously, and today's PLCs don't have much in common with their predecessors of a few years ago. The higher complexity brings potential risks that have to be fought off with even more new functions. With the newest member of the S7 family, Siemens tries to bring it all together.
While industrial automation in general has just made the move towards ccompany-independent standards, new concepts like cloud computing seem to be almost too revolutionary for this industry. As a consequence, equipment providers tread softly and integrate new technology with caution. Why not hide a cloud in an M2M-Platform?
Many fieldbus systems originate in the last century, including the installed hardware basis. Slowly, the architectures are being enhanced to make use of modern technologies. As an example, PCI Express allows for transparent implementation of different interface techniques, including Profibus.
What’s more preferable to visit: CeBIT or embedded world 2011? That may have been a relevant question last week, since both trade shows took place quite at the same time last week. Well, that’s somehow hard to decide: It goes without saying that everything at CeBIT 2011 (1 to 5 March) revolves primarily around bits, bytes and innovative technologies, such as new smartphones and tablet computers.
For industrial automation, general purpose measurement and other specific markets, National Instruments has recently released more than 100 »C Series« modules. 50 of those come from NI itself, 50 are third-party modules.
CompactPCI is around for the better part of 15 years and in this time, many bus and connection standards have seen the light of day and vanished again. cPCI is flexible enough to work together even with the most modern and fastest processor units.
The German MSC Vertriebs GmbH has become a member of the FeaturePak Initiative , unveiled March 1st, 2010 which supports a new flexible embedded I/O expansion standard. Formally developed by the standard originator Diamond Systems , the FeaturePak specification has been donated to the organization. It defines application-specific I/O modules with a size of 65 mm x 43 mm that snap into low-cost, low-profile sockets on computer-on-module (COM) baseboards. With the I/O modules, customers are able to add additional functions to COM baseboards without adding height to the system. The compactness of the FeaturePak modules is especially important in combination with Qseven modules in 70 mm x 70 mm format. The organizers believe that this standard will shortly represent the “Next Big Thing” in modular embedded computing.
For the experts of embedding computing the upcoming trade show embedded world 2010 may be a special highlight: The venue not only sets standards and records every year. Despite the difficult economic conditions, the industry’s international get-together continues to grow with innovation that reflects the dynamic of this market.
Hard Rock fans cry out loud: Kiss are silent these days? Calm down, this is neither about ballads nor about aging glam rockers, not even about Gene Simmons. KISS is for acronym for Kontron Industrial Silent Server, The PCI Express Butterfly Backplane of KISS 2U is equipped with up to four PCI Express x4 cards and one PCI Express x16 (PEG) card. According to Kontron it’s for highly-integrated industrial servers for complex visualization and image processing tasks.
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