EPN Industrial Automation Blog

Tested safety

The partnership between Wind River and Isagraf, announced on SPS/IPC/DRIVES 2011, is taking form. The former RTOS company receives know-how on validated SIL 3 solutions while Isagraf's safety software is being integrated in common products.

Industrial MCUs

What's a  microcontroller for industrial applications supposed to do? One of the main demands today is to increase energy efficiency while at the same time support as many communications standards as neccessary. Due to the multicore nature of modern microcontrollers, programming has become increasingly difficult so anything that reduces software complexity is highly desirable.

Packaging and robots

While the Scandinavian industrial markets in themselves are more or less negligible, they nevertheless are very interesting as they are considered stepping stones for the North-East European markets. This might be the driving motive behind the acquisiotion of the Finnish company Trimaster Oy by German packaging specialist Multivac.

SCADA vulnerability

A week ago, security researcher Rubén Santamarta publicly announced details of multiple vulnerabilities affecting the Schneider Electric Quantum PLC Ethernet Module, and coordinated his findings with ICS-CERT. The Quantum Ethernet Module is prone to an authentication-bypass vulnerability.

Machine under forced scrutiny

In industrial systems, machines need to be monitored constantly in order to ensure material stability, system security and personnel safety. The Field Device Technology standard (FDT) takes care of vendor-independent parameterization.

Siemens and Samba

Strange times: traditionally Hardware-oriented companies are currently looking towards Software. For some, this may be a mistake, but in the area of industrial automation, a fitting software solution might just smoothly top off the portfolio.

Holiday blog: Long-term board

Many industrial applications require long-term availability of their components. While this is comparatively easy when it's about mechanics, industrial computers depend on the availability of processors, memory, controller-ICs and similar rapidly-changing parts. Usually, the choice is between using "mature" technology and expensive deals with providers specialized in 'banking' components. Maybe there's a different approach?

Free access to field devices

Specialists in fieldbus technologies don’t usually give anything away for free, neither as in free beer nor as in free speech, to quote Richard Stallman. Since manufacturers often even charge extra for supplying the (standard) software driver necessary to operate the devices they sell, any exception of that policy is remarkable.

Fast memory for Profibus

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.

Ethernet for ‘intelligent’ applications

A major driver in the development of »CC-Link IE« was to deliver an automation network for manufacturing without many of today’s shortcomings. It’s meant to be simple to implement, easy to troubleshoot and use standard Ethernet tools. The current result is »CC-Link IE Field«.