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New Technology Changes the RTOS Game
Control Engineering, November 2008
By C.G. Masi
Multicore microcontroller technology and software virtualization make the embedded system and motion-control design engineer’s job more complex. In many ways, however, they make the job easier.
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Sun-readable display technology: How it works
Control Engineering Europe, October 2008
Sunlight visibility of a display depends on differences between the lumination (brightness) and the illumination (ambient light shining on a display). Lumination is the amount of light energy emanating from the display (expressed in Cd/m2).
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The Evolution of Redundancy
Industrial Networking, Winter 2008
By Bob Wagner
To minimize downtime due to system failures most major suppliers have developed products and systems to provide redundancy in an attempt to maximize system availability. These products range from redundant power supplies and cabling schemes to redundant processor and I/O systems with automatic failover.
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Do PLCs Eliminate Need for a DCS?
By Bill Lydon, Contributing Editor
In the past it was fairly easy to determine whether a PLC or a DCS was right for an application but in recent years this has become more difficult. It is argued that more powerful PLC products coupled with new software tools provide an integrated process control system rivaling a distributed control system (DCS) for process control applications.
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Automation Insights Network
By Rick Zabel, Publisher
Automation Insights Network is a select group of controls and automation professionals who agree to help us cover news, emerging trends and technologies on various automation topics. Every two months, we will ask people in the Network to share their observations, knowledge and expertise with us. We take that information, distill it, and pass it on to our reporters and editors for use in future stories.
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Industrial Ethernet Growth Slowed by FUD
By Bill Lydon, Contributing Editor
The promise of Industrial Ethernet is clear: it will revolutionize manufacturing by tightly integrating control and business systems, if users can overcome their fear, uncertainty and doubt(FUD). One failure can trigger a cascade of problems and result in a significant loss of time and money. There are many issues surrounding the use of Ethernet in industrial control applications that give control engineers reasons for concern.
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ISA - Change the name to represent the industry
By Rick Zabel, Automation.com
The proposed name change of ISA (to "International Society of Automation") is up for a vote again during ISA Expo in Houston, October 14-16, 2008. Last year, the change was voted down, but I have yet to hear a compelling argument against the change. And there are many reasons for the change. If ISA is truly the global society of automation professionals, then its name should reflect its cause. It's time for a change!
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State of Manufacturing & Automation in the U.S. Looks Good
Could it be that high fuel prices, the weak dollar and crises in the U.S. manufacturing industry are creating opportunities? Andy Chatha of ARC Advisory Group thinks so. He says the U.S. industry has suddenly become competitive on the world market, and companies are no longer moving operations overseas. Instead, many are expanding their facilities, and he predicts a boom in automation right here in the U.S.
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What Does an Automation Computer Look Like?
By Mike Berryman, Advantech
This is the age of embedded computing. From wristwatches to cell phones to industrial process control devices, computers control everything. But these devices do not look like computers. So what does an automation computer look like?
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Object architectures in an increasingly services-oriented world
Control, June 2008
By Paul Miller
COM and CORBA were technologies for distributed objects. These are now being supplanted by services-based technologies and for good reasons.
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Single Board Computers for Control Applications
Control Engineering, June 2008
By C.G. Masi
One of embedded systems’ greatest advantages for control applications is the variety of form factors available.
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Don't judge a supplier by its name
By Frank Hurtte, Contributing Author.
For those of us who live and breathe the rarified vapors of technology based automation, it's pretty hard to fathom how life existed without electronic automation. Yet, it has been a short 30 years since the venerable PLC became anything more than a novelty outside of the Big 3 in Detroit. Sometime in the late 1970s, microprocessors changed our lives forever. Since those early days, the power of these tiny chips forever changed the way we think about manufacturing.
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Regional Manufacturing Expos Prove Most Valuable
By Thomas R. Cutler
Deciding which conferences, webinars, and expos are worthwhile for manufacturing engineers and buyers to attend often feels like a dangerous yellow brick road, never knowing quite what to expect.
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Chasing Moore’s Law – The Truth Behind the OS and CPU Upgrades for Industrial PC Users
By Alan Koch, Advantech
COTS electronic hardware and software have caused real problems for the industrial PC users, who benefit less and less as each operating system and CPU revision cycle passes. There may be no reason to upgrade. Probably 50% of industrial control applications would run fine on a military-grade 80486-type device using the DOS operating system.
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What You Need to Know Before Purchasing a Rugged Mobile Computer
IEN, March 2008
Every day, more and more vendors claim to have “ruggedized” computers. But how can you tell how rugged a terminal really is? This paper identifies the common specifications used to describe the ruggedness of a mobile computer, and clarifies what each of these specifications truly means.
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Troubleshooting OPC and DCOM: Quick Start Guide
by Randy Kondor, OPC Training Institute
OPC is a powerful industrial communication standard. However, OPC relies on having DCOM work properly. Luckily, DCOM problems can usually be overcome with relatively simple configuration changes as documented in this whitepaper.
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The Horse with Stripes
Control, February 2008
By Walt Boyes
Many IT security professionals now profess to be “industrial cyber security experts” because they understand “SCADA” and have worked for years in enterprise IT and enterprise cybersecurity. But it takes more than that to function properly in the industrial controls environment.
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Time for Plant and Corporate IT to Grow Up
Control, February 2008
By Charlie Gifford, 21st Century Manufacturing Solutions
Subject: the bloody war zone in manufacturing operations management (MOM) systems. Neither side realizes how large and complex job it is to integrate and translate between the plant and business in real-time.
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The Status Quo Isn't
Control, February 2008
By Jeffrey R. Harrow
Web applications may be the next big thing in computing. Consider how web apps might enhance customer solutions: all the applications could reside and run on an always up-to-date web-based server that can access an extended information set. If it's you who provide this remote web app as a service, you can generate a continuing revenue stream! Are You Ready?
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Potential Power Picks
Control Engineering, February 2008
By C.G. Masi
Power options for embedded systems are as varied as the applications they serve. Mixing and matching these available power sources for primary, recharge, and backup duty gives embedded system designers a wide range of options to power their creations. Here’s a tutorial on the choices.
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On-Machine Controls
Control Engineering, February 2008
By C.G. Masi
Automation vendors have begun to reverse the trend away from on-machine controls by introducing ruggedized industrial electronics packages that make it possible to move controls back onto machines.
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OPC & DCOM: 5 things you need to know
by Randy Kondor, OPC Training Institute
OPC technology relies on Microsoft's COM and DCOM to exchange data between automation hardware and software; however it can be frustrating for new users to configure DCOM properly. This whitepaper discusses the steps necessary to get DCOM working properly and securely.
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Signal Conditioning for PC-Based Control
Control Engineering, January 2008
By C.G. Masi
Control-system designers need to pay extra attention to signal conditioning issues when using PC-based controllers. PACs and PLCs don’t have the same problems.
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Mathematics of information
Control Engineering, January 2008
By Dennis Brandl
Most control engineers will eventually have to build or specify a database to hold instrument data, analysis data, or production reporting data. This is the point when understanding the underlying structure and mathematics of databases becomes important.
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Software Review: Software speeds engineering calculations
Machine Design, January 2008
By Bill Fane
Review of Maple 11 mathematical software by long-time user.
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New Guises, Protections for Industrial PCs
Control, January 2008
By Jim Montague
Reports of the demise of the industrial computer have been greatly exaggerated. Sure, recent technical advances are making the desktop PC-in-a-box and many of its traditional capabilities unrecognizable. However, there remain many applications in which operators need screen-based HMIs on or close to machines, production lines or other systems.
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Wolves at the Security House Door(s), Part 2
Control, January 2008
By Eric Byres
If the Single Firewall is not Secure Enough for Control Systems, What Security Model Is?
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Layers Protect Access to Controls
Control Design, January 2008
By Loren Shaum, contributing editor
Unfortunately, passwords get passed around. Access in the wrong hands often leads to machine downtime, costing thousands.
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Embedded Hardware and OS Technology Empower PC-Based Platforms
By Hector Lin, Advantech Corporation
Embedded computing devices have changed the world of industrial automation. A plethora of general purpose computing devices perform the tasks that special purpose processors and devices were built to perform a decade ago.
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Gigabit Ethernet: Meeting the Future with Increased Bandwidth
By Paul Wacker, Advantech Corporation,
The proliferation of COTS embedded computers used for operator workstations, calibration devices, and even for field transmitters has made it possible to see a future where Fast Ethernet, rapidly followed by Gigabit Ethernet, may be available directly from the sensor electronics themselves.
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Vulnerabilities identified in SCADA systems
InfoWorld, May 2007
By Matt Hines
The first remotely-exploitable vulnerabilities in Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems have been identified by researchers.
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Off-the-shelf building blocks fit embedded systems
Embedded Computing Design, March 2007
By Kristin Allen, Kristin Allen Marketing & Design
Companies often develop their own electronics subsystems for products that require embedded computing elements. Many don’t leverage standards-based modular embedded computer systems to significantly reduce time to market and costs for projects that have embedded electronic components.
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IPCs: New form factors for new jobs
Control Design, March 2007
By Jim Montague, Executive Editor
PCs are changing even more now. The nature and definition of PCs has evolved to the point they’re often unrecognizable from PCs of old. Sure, there are still many traditionally protected industrial PCs (IPCs), but the line separating them from other control and automation devices has faded, if not entirely vanished. This evolution makes it even more important for users to take care in selecting and implementing the most appropriate solution for their application.
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What Happens in Plant Stays in Plant
InTech, March 2007
By May Permann, et al, Idaho National Laboratory
While players in automation are becoming more aware computer systems are vulnerable to cyber attack, especially those controlling our nation’s critical infrastructure, some don’t always implement control system security procedures and devices consistently and effectively. To remotely manipulate a control system, an attacker must gain access to the control system local area network (LAN), discover and understand the process, and then control the process. Researchers at INL report progress in cyber security.
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The Line
InTech, March 2007
By Eric Byres, Byres Security
Sound security strategy, whether military, physical, or cyber security, is the concept of "Defense in Depth"-firewalls don't fail me now. Firewalls are a fantastic tool in the security toolbox, but industry has misused them. The solution to securing the plant floor is to build a proper defense-in-depth strategy that does not over rely on any single technology. It also means first creating a proper electronic perimeter around the control system and then hardening the devices within.
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Not your Father’s RTOS
Control Engineering, March 2007
By Hank Hogan
Embedded real-time operating systems (RTOSs) have changed, adding greater connectivity while meeting new safety and security certifications and considerations.
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Production Monitoring and Data Mining –No Strip Mining Allowed!
In essence, data mining is the process of sifting historical data to find data that supports a premise, or produces a pattern. The implication is that only favorable data is discovered, making the process somewhat dubious. There are a variety of ways data can be mined, including manually, or with increasingly sophisticated analysis software that includes artificial intelligence and neural network modeling tools.
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