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Busting Common Myths about PC-based Automation

PC-based control systems enhance industrial automation compared
to PLCs, providing benefits for performance, cost and system
lifecycle
PC-based control systems are the target of many
misconceptions. In some cases, these misconceptions
are perpetuated by PLC manufacturers as a means of
marketing PLCs. Dispelling misconceptions can help with the
implementation of and the benefits from PC-based control
systems.
First, let's bust five of the most common myths about PC-
based control. Then, we will explore the unique advantages it
offers to applications across industries. Doug Schuchart
Material Handling &
1. PCs are not real-time because they rely on the clock Intralogistics Manager
speed of the PC Beckhoff Automation LLC

FALSE: Most PC-based control platforms today, including

TwinCAT from Beckhoff, utilize a real-time kernel or a real-
time operating system (RTOS). If a real-time kernel is utilized,
the kernel is started during the boot process of the operating
system. From that point on, the kernel does not rely on the
operating system (OS), although there is communication
between the kernel and the OS. TwinCAT gets its real-time
nature from the real-time kernel.

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Modern PLCs are actually mimicking PC-based controllers 3. PCs are not deterministic
in many ways, utilizing real-time operating systems or kernels
instead of firmware. In these “black box” setups, however, FALSE: A Beckhoff system runs deterministic scans of the PLC
engineers do not gain the benefits of an open system. with high repeatability. When a Task (such as a PLC code
execution) is scheduled to run, the system latency is quite low
2. PCs are not as fast as a PLC at less than 5 µs. Using distributed clock technology on the
EtherCAT fieldbus, the accuracy of synchronizing fieldbus data is
FALSE: A Beckhoff system running TwinCAT on a Beckhoff IPC in the nanosecond range.
with EtherCAT communication is one of the fastest control Most PLCs on the market today, including some from the
systems in the world. PC-based largest automation suppliers,
control systems in general take do not run deterministic scans
advantage of newer, faster "PLCs today are attempting to add but instead still run through the
processors, ensuring that the entire program as fast as it can.
systems are always leading in further communication openness This leads to greatly varying
performance while maintaining
lowest costs.
that is, and has been, inherently execution times of the PLC.
One scan might finish in 800
A Beckhoff system for
instance is capable of 50 µs
available to the PC." µs, but the next scan could take
several milliseconds based on
scan rates synchronous with a what PLC logic is executed. In
50 µs EtherCAT network scan. Distributed clocks in EtherCAT this example, it would mean that without special I/O hardware,
devices on the network automatically synchronize, making there is no way to repeatedly capture an input that might only
the system capable of doing control in between the network stay on for, say, 1ms.
scan down to 1 µs, with accuracy in the nanosecond range. In Also, with varying program execution times, it is extremely
addition, this can be accomplished with very low jitter. difficult to synchronize motion control. This is why many
Further, unlike PLCs with real-time operating systems, a vendors will need to add an additional CPU – either on the
Beckhoff system running TwinCAT utilizes the full performance same hardware or in a rack module – to independently control
of modern multi-core processors. This means that separate the motion control loops.
PLC tasks can run in separate cores of a multi-core machine Adding CPUs and associated hardware means increased
controller. Applications such as vision systems, robot controllers costs, as well as an obvious increase in the amount of hardware
and other software functions – even those from third parties and necessary real estate inside the cabinet. Anytime excess
– can additionally execute in dedicated cores of the multi-core CPUs are added to the control system, you also reduce flexibility
machine controller alongside the TwinCAT PLC. The operating and introduce more obsolescence, in addition to the latency
system can also be isolated to one core, enabling the other created in the communication between the two processors.
cores to operate with zero jitter.
PC-based
automation
offers many
common
approaches
to protect the
system as well
as many third-
party software
packages that
can be utilized
as part of
the security
solution.

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4. PCs don’t offer the security that PLCs offer
FALSE: It is a known fact that several of the largest global PLC
manufacturers have had hackers break into their PLCs via a
software “back door.” PLC manufacturers are solely responsible
for protecting the system for their customers. With a PC-based
system, there are common approaches to harden the system as
well as many third-party software packages that can be utilized
as part of the security solution.
PLCs today are attempting to add further communication
openness that is, and has been, inherently available to the PC.
Adding those protocols to make PLCs more open while at the
same time indicating that the openness of PC-based control is a
security risk is taking both sides of the argument.
Beckhoff is at the forefront of PC security. A whitepaper is
available to help customers harden their machine controllers
and ensure they have a good strategy for security of the control
system architecture. In addition, we are leading in organizations
such as the OPC Foundation in developing new standard
protocols for encrypted secure data communication between
the machine controller and the enterprise, as well as into
the cloud. This work helped bring about the OPC UA (Unified
Architecture) standard. Beckhoff was one of the first companies
supporting this communication from our control software and
was the first to support both server and client implementations
running on the controller.
From micro-controllers to compact Industrial PCs and Embedded PCs all
the way up to powerful many-core machine controllers with up to 40
cores, the Beckhoff machine control portfolio offers robust, scalable and PC-based control. Beckhoff offers both centralized and
industrial-hardened options for all applications.
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Embedded PCs offer the power, flexibility and openness of industrial PCs
in a DIN rail-mounted format familiar to traditional PLC users.
5. Companies are moving more towards distributed
control over centralized control because there is more
risk in centralized control if you lose the controller
FALSE: Due to limitations of PLCs, there is heightened interest
in distributed control to meet the growing demands of the
technology being added to machines on the plant floor. To be
clear, “distributed control” is referring to distribution of control
functions to multiple machine controllers or PLCs, which again
eliminates flexibility and introduces further obsolescence.
Distributed networks, on the other hand, to connect sensors,
drive technology, robots, vision cameras and barcode readers,
etc., provide optimal flexibility and diagnostics while reducing
installation effort.
Smarter sensors have created a need for protocols that can
deal with the parameters available in the sensor which are
often updated via on-board web servers. An example of such
a protocol is IO-Link which is supported as a gateway from
Beckhoff’s powerful EtherCAT system. Ideally all parameters
for drives, sensors and other devices across the system can
be stored in one central location. That way, when connecting
remotely these can be viewed and updated easily, and the data
can be used for troubleshooting. Replacement of smart devices
also becomes quite easy as the parameters can be sent down to
the replacement device without any preconfiguration. EtherCAT
as a fast communication protocol can send parameters down to
devices upon start-up or as parameters are changed on the fly.
Decentralized control also has its place in automation
solutions however this is not an argument for or against
decentralized control solutions. While much fewer, there are
certainly modular machines that can benefit from such a
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control strategy. Often, however, a centralized controller with
EtherCAT’s hot connect functionality is ideally suited to modular
applications.
If distributed controls are desired for an application,
Beckhoff can employ EtherCAT Automation Protocol (EAP) for
communication between controllers. EAP is an open protocol
managed by the EtherCAT Technology Group and offers fast
real-time communication using routable TCP communications
frames. The data is sent directly from the real-time Kernel and
offers a publish and subscribe model for exchanging data
between controllers.
To say, however, that by combining HMI, PLC and motion
and even other technologies onto a central controller
increases risk if there is a failure is a silly notion. The majority
of machines cannot function if any one of these critical
functions is eliminated. That argument simply encourages
customers to add undue cost, complexity and increased
obsolescence to their system with undue merit.

The broad
range of PC-
based machine
controllers
– including
IPCs, Embedded
PCs and Panel
PCs – offers
solutions for
all industries,
with extreme
scalability
for countless
application
types.

Sound Bytes: What do engineering leaders say about PC-based control?

Jason Johnson, Sr. Manager of Machine
Control Development, Honeywell
Intelligrated: "Since we don’t have to use
air-conditioned cabinets or install PCs in the
IT space, Beckhoff IPC technology saved us
upwards of 50% in hardware costs, even over
PLCs. Our customers like these embedded PCs
because they look similar to a PLC. Although
some are uncertain about transitioning from
legacy PLC technology, they mainly care
about performance and uptime. The fact
of the matter is: both are industrial-grade
machine controllers with an operating system,
but unlike hardware PLCs, Beckhoff PC-
based control is cost-effective, flexible and
transparent.”
David Leeson, VP of Engineering,
Glidewell Dental: "Our previous controllers
could only handle a single mill each, where
the Beckhoff controllers operate four mills
each. In addition, to achieve the same data
acquisition and cloud connectivity, the
previous controllers would have required
a separate PC. ... With Beckhoff IPCs, we
can run approved antivirus software in the
Windows environment. This solution meets
all cybersecurity demands without affecting
performance, which is impressive."
Jeff Zerr, Advisory Controls Engineer,
EuroSort: "With our previous PLC vendor,
not only did we have three or four different
software packages for each controller
type, but the engineering software all
added considerable cost to our projects. ...
The intralogistics industry is increasingly
data-driven, so having a secure PC-based
automation platform as your standard is a
good place to be. I believe we’ll see even
more of the factory floor merging with the
back-end database side of operations."
Jeff Werner, General Manager, Eclipse
Automation, Cambridge: "Most students
are not learning traditional PLC programming.
Instead, they leave university with a far better
understanding of PC-based control systems
than ever before, and that grows every year.
Fortunately Beckhoff has proven to be a
reliable partner for this as well as all areas
of automation technology. When we have
challenging applications, we’ll be ready to
provide competitive solutions together."
For case studies, visit us online:
► blog.beckhoffus.com
► PC-Control.net/english

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Superior functionality, processing power, flexibility and cost:

7 important benefits of PC-based control in industrial automation
Once you dispel the myths perpetuated by PLC vendors, the
many benefits of PC-based control architectures are clear. This
whitepaper will seek to highlight some of those advantages.
However, this is certainly not a comprehensive list.
1. Performance
PC-based systems can more quickly bring faster processors
to the market ensuring that a PC-based system offers the
highest performance over a PLC. Most PLC vendors utilize CPU
technology that is vastly slower than today’s common PC CPU,
such as a multi-core Intel® Core™ i7, AMD Ryzen™ or many-
core Intel® Xeon® processors.
Beckhoff already supports and can fully utilize each
individual core of a multi- or many-core processor to gain
far more performance than a single threaded PLC. High-
performance PC CPUs have a great cost-to-performance ratio
when compared to other CPU architectures or chipsets. This is
due to the economy of scale.
2. Reduction of hardware and thus reduction of costs
Most machines benefit from a centralized control approach,
which is particularly suited to PC-based control. Of course,
there are instances where decentralized control makes sense,
and Beckhoff also offers such solutions. However, it is most
advantageous to access all software and data from one central
location and utilize one central communication method for all
devices on the control system.
Traditional machine architecture approaches involve a
PLC, motion controller and separate PC for HMI, vision, data
collection, etc. Many vendors today are choosing to integrate
a secondary CPU for motion control into the main PLC body,
or into a rack module rather than a standalone black box.
Wherever the CPUs are located, the system still involves three
separate processors – plus the add-on PC – and extra clock
cycles for real-time PLC and motion control.
A centralized architecture with one IPC eliminates extra
CPUs, hardware and, thus, costs. This approach vastly simplifies
the control system and improves uptime by providing better
diagnostics in one central location. It also reduces energy usage,
helping companies meet green production initiatives.
3. Obsolescence protection: increase system lifecycles
When a PLC becomes obsolete, what generally happens? The
complete control architecture becomes obsolete, including the
software running on the PLC. Thus, companies must constantly
redesign their control system from scratch every five years or so.
In a PC-based control system, one processor’s end of life does
not make the entire architecture obsolete.
By incorporating more into software running on a standard
IPC, engineers can simply replace aging hardware without
any changes to the control system, including the software.

The core isolation

capabilities in
TwinCAT allow
engineers to
assign individual
processes to
specific cores to
achieve better
performance. For
example, this
C6030 ultra-
compact IPC with
eight cores assigns
the PLC task to
core 0, NC to core
1, C++ to core 2,
safety to core 3,
Windows to core
4, HMI to core 5
and CNC to core 6,
with the final core
reserved for future
functions.

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PLC programs and fieldbus configurations simply download
to a TwinCAT runtime on the new IPC, without need for code
changes. Code written on TwinCAT in the early 2000s on early
generation processors easily runs on today’s leading-edge
processors.
As in the general consumer PC market, new processors with
increased performance are often introduced to the market at
lower prices. This cycle of performance-versus-cost optimization
applies also to PC-based control, while PLCs continue to fall
behind in performance and lifecycle.
4. Openness for communication: use standard protocols
Today’s competitive global market forces every company
to analyze data from the plant floor to optimize quality,
throughput, efficiency and cost effectiveness. So machines must
offer open methods for both collecting and sharing data with
the enterprise for further analysis. Further, it is increasingly
important for companies to react to analytics as well as control With support for all open communication protocols, TwinCAT establishes
the machines from the enterprise.
With the next Industrial Revolution, Industrie 4.0, companies
will need high-end computing analysis tools operating across
their global facilities. PC-based control has been prepared
for Industrie 4.0 for many years, while PLC vendors are
scrambling to offer the necessary open PC protocols. For
example, communication of OPC UA across Ethernet provides
an encrypted method of sharing data bi-directionally between
the machine and the enterprise. More IPCs that utilize standard
Ethernet, USB and other PC protocols are rapidly entering the
market.
Beckhoff uniquely supports all open fieldbus protocols.
While the EtherCAT protocols provides significant advantages
Using PC-based control allows engineers to leverage the advanced
computing power of multi- and many-core CPUs. The CX20x2 Embedded
PC series from Beckhoff, for example, utilizes Intel® Xeon® processors
with up to 12 cores in a DIN-rail-mountable form factor.
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secure data transfer to the enterprise level or the cloud.
by eliminating switches and proprietary backplane protocols,
TwinCAT and EtherCAT offer communication capabilities to
many other open protocols including EtherNet/IP, PROFINET,
PROFIBUS, DeviceNet, CANopen, SERCOS, Interbus, Modbus
RTU, Modbus TCP and standard serial and Ethernet
communication. In addition to typical machine control
protocols, Beckhoff also supports many other industry protocols
such as those used in entertainment and building automation.
By offering interfaces and couplers to more than 30 protocols,
we enable users to choose the perfect sensor or other device for
their application, without fear of communications integration to
the main machine control.
5. Openness for software: use diverse programming
languages, tools and IP
A PC-based control solution affords the control system use of
any third-party software, which can run on the central controller
alongside the HMI, PLC and motion control software. This
includes your IP developed in-house. Our new non-Windows OS,
TwinCAT/BSD, also allows engineers to use UNIX-based options
as their applications dictate. With modern security options
available to PC-based control, your IP and data can leverage the
best protection available, compared to the extremely limited
options for PLCs.
TwinCAT 3 automation software from Beckhoff also
supports utilizing many programming languages to develop the
control program. Use of any of the IEC 61131-3 programming
languages is possible as well as object-oriented programming.
In addition, direct integration into Visual Studio integration
supports use of computer science standards, as well as custom
and predefined function blocks. By combining IEC 61131-3 and
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Visual Studio, TwinCAT provides the most open and universally

standard environment for programming globally. And in terms
of real time, it is possible to run C/C++ in the TwinCAT real-time
kernel in addition to the IEC programming languages.

6. Improved diagnostics

Diagnostics do not just benefit the PC, but they also improve
diagnostic capabilities of a complete Beckhoff control system
with EtherCAT. First, a PC-based centralized control solution
offers a single collection point for all diagnostic data, making it
easy to troubleshoot a problem and improve machine uptime.
This can easily be done remotely as remote connectivity is
inherent to PC-based solutions.
All Beckhoff IPCs incorporate a webpage for quick view
of IPC diagnostics such as temperature, fan speed, storage
capacity, etc. All IPC diagnostic data can also be accessed via
OPC UA or directly in the PLC. Furthermore, TwinCAT Scope, a
built-in software oscilloscope, and other diagnostic features can
be utilized remotely since the engineering environment can be
loaded on the IPC along with the PLC project.
EtherCAT provides further diagnostic capabilities particularly
since EtherCAT can be utilized in a Beckhoff system as the
sole communication protocol across the system. In a Beckhoff
system, EtherCAT is also used for communication to individual
I/Os on local and remote I/O racks. This provides diagnostics
not simply to the rack level but also to the individual I/O level.
As such, the central IPC gains information such as the exact
location of a communication breakdown to an I/O terminal in
the middle of an I/O rack.
EtherCAT and IPC technology from Beckhoff supports more than 30
fieldbus protocols as well as OPC UA, MQTT, AMQP and more.
7. Larger resource pool

Customers utilizing PLCs increasingly face a smaller pool of Thus, a PC-based solution, particularly a Beckhoff solution,
engineers with skills and experience using traditional PLC ensures our customers have a wide resource pool of skilled
programming languages. Engineers coming out of colleges are programmers today and as the balance of PLC-versus-PC
more comfortable and skilled in PC programming languages. programmers continues to shift in the future.

Learn more about the benefits of PC-based control technology from

Beckhoff — visit us online!
► www.beckhoff.com/ipc

Beckhoff Automation LLC Beckhoff®, TwinCAT®, EtherCAT®, EtherCAT G®, EtherCAT G10®, EtherCAT P®, Safety over EtherCAT®, TwinSAFE®, XFC®, XTS® and XPlanar®
are registered trademarks of and licensed by Beckhoff Automation GmbH. Other designations used in this publication may be trademarks whose use by
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Savage, MN 55378
© Beckhoff Automation LLC 10/2021
Phone: 1-877-TwinCAT
sales.usa@beckhoff.com The information provided in this brochure contains merely general descriptions or characteristics of performance which in case of actual application
www.beckhoff.com do not always apply as described or which may change as a result of further development of the products. An obligation to provide the respective
characteristics shall only exist if expressively agreed in the terms of contract. We reserve the right to make technical changes.