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Overview
In the world of industrial automation, nothing ever happens fast. We don’t know revolution, only evolution, and there’s a good reason for that. But we do mark milestones every now and then, like the beginning of Industrie 4.0 in 2011. However, for those of us who have been around long enough, 1995 was a special year because it marked the end of an era and the beginning of several new technology paths that our industry has followed for more than a quarter century.
What ended in 1995? The era of big, expensive PLCs. The use of antiquated and sometimes proprietary systems for visualization. Slow, vendor-specific industrial networks.
What was new in 1995? Plenty!
1995 Marked the Advent of Modern PLC Architectures
The year 1995 witnessed the launch of two new PLC systems from Siemens (SIMATIC S7) and Rockwell Automation (ControlLogix). Both systems were a huge departure from the heavy metal that the industry had been accustomed to since the 1970s. These systems were much more modular and compact than their predecessors. They also looked a lot better – both showed the signature of experienced industrial designers who convinced the world that controllers should be aesthetically attractive products, even if they spent most of their time locked in electrical cabinets.
Most importantly, these controllers were more than just PLCs. Several years later, ARC coined the term programmable automation controllers (PAC) to describe them as platforms that support multiple automation tasks rather than just logic control. The all-in-one controller was made possible by fast, intelligent backplanes that greatly improved the communication between multiple controller modules, special function modules, and IO. In fact, microprocessors were added to “normal” analog and digital IO modules to make them intelligent, software configurable, and capable of reporting diagnostic information.
With the new controllers came new engineering tools that made automation configuration much simpler. Tag databases were introduced that allowed users to give IO points meaningful names rather than cryptic addresses. Intelligent modules, such as highspeed counters or weigh-scale modules could be configured directly via the programming software, allowing data to be scaled in the device first, then used directly in the PLC program in meaningful units. This led to the introduction of “engineering frameworks” that integrated programming and configuration in a single engineering tool. Probably the greatest advancement was the integration of motion and logic control. Suddenly, complex, coordinated motion among multiple servo motors could be programmed directly in the PLC rather than in another language and another module.
1995 Witnessed the Birth (and Burial) of the Soft PLC
In 1995, we learned that PLCs could run on PCs, thus launching the era of PC-based control. The PLC would be delivered on a CD and would run on a PC operating system as a protected task to ensure consistent performance. Data exchange between the PLC task and other software running on the same PC would be greatly simplified. Data logging would take place on the same machine with unlimited capacity. IO could be connected via network interfaces inserted into the back of the PC.
Would we replace our PLC hardware with much cheaper PCs? For the most part, this never happened.
The soft PLC was developed and marketed by a few small, innovative companies, but these firms were quickly acquired by Big PLC where the products languished for decades. Some tried to package soft PLCs with ruggedized PC hardware, while others simply made the PC hardware look like a PLC, helping to blur the line between “hard” PLCs and PC-based automation. Now, a quarter century later, the soft PLC may finally have its day, but the vision has developed. Today, users can virtualize soft PLCs and consolidate them on servers either on-premise or, someday, hosted in the cloud.
1995 Taught Us to Think and Work in Windows
The magical year 1995 saw the introduction of Windows 95, the first iteration of Microsoft Windows that defined the look and feel of operating systems through today. Visualization systems before that ran on MS-DOS or obscure operating systems. Configuration tools were primitive and complex, and graphical interfaces were anything but standardized. Windows 95 inspired the industry to abandon the heavy, proprietary hardware in use and to embrace the modern PC architecture as the platform for visualization in the plant.
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Keywords: Industrie 4.0, IIoT, Automation, Future Automation Architectures, PLC, ARC Advisory Group.