The difference between IPC and PLC is not in their looks, nor in their working environment, but in their functions. As far as development is concerned, they come from different ways. PLC comes from electrical logic control characterized by relay, and industrial control computer comes from computer. In the early days, PLC could only be used for logic operation. Now its functions are becoming more and more powerful, but in general, it is still suitable for automation projects mainly based on sequence control, such as process industry. As a control equipment, industrial personal computer is mainly used in automation projects mainly based on process control, such as chemical industry. As the human interface of the upper computer, the industrial computer is considered as only a PC, which has nothing to do with the control function.

What’s the difference between a computer industrial control computer and a normal PC

Industrial Personal Computer (IPC) is a kind of reinforced enhanced personal computer, which can be used as an industrial controller to operate reliably in the industrial environment. As early as the early 1980s, AD Company of the United States launched a MAC-150 industrial personal computer similar to IPC, and then IBM Company of the United States officially launched an industrial personal computer IBM7532. Due to its reliable performance, rich software and low price, IPC has emerged as a new force in industrial personal computers and has been used more and more widely. At present, IPC has been widely used in communication, industrial control site, road and bridge toll collection, medical treatment, environmental protection and all aspects of people’s life.

Technical characteristics of IPC:

1. The fully toughened industrial case conforming to the “EIA” standard is adopted to enhance the anti electromagnetic interference capability.

2. The bus structure and modular design technology are adopted. CPU and all functional modules are of plug-in structure with soft locking of pressure bar, which improves the impact resistance and vibration resistance.

3. The case is equipped with double fans, positive pressure convection ventilation, and dust filter screen for dust prevention.

4. It is equipped with highly reliable industrial power supply and has over-voltage and over-current protection.

5. The power supply and keyboard are equipped with electronic lock switch to prevent illegal opening, closing and illegal keyboard input.

6. It has self diagnosis function.

7. I/O templates can be selected as required.

8. The “watchdog” timer is set to automatically reset without human intervention when the machine crashes due to failure.

9. With good openness and compatibility, it absorbs all functions of PC and can directly run various application software of PC.

10. The real-time operating system can be configured to facilitate the scheduling and running of multiple tasks.

11. Passive motherboard (backplane) can be used to facilitate system upgrading.

Main structure of IPC:

1. All steel chassis

The all steel chassis of IPC is designed according to the standard, which is impact resistant, vibration resistant, and electromagnetic interference resistant. The interior can be installed with a PC bus compatible passive backplane.

2. Passive backplane

The slot of the passive backplane is composed of multiple slots of ISA and PCI buses. The number and location of ISA or PCI slots can be selected according to the needs. The board has a four layer structure, and the middle two layers are respectively the layer and power layer. This structure can reduce the mutual interference of logic signals on the board and reduce the power impedance. The backplane can be inserted with various boards, including CPU card, display card, control card, I/O card, etc.

3. Industrial power supply

It is an AT switching power supply with an average time between failures of 250000 hours.

4. CPU card

IPC has a variety of CPU cards, which can be divided into long cards and half long cards according to the size, and 386, 486, 586, PII, PIII motherboards according to the processor. Users can choose any one according to their own needs. Its main characteristics are: working temperature 0-600C; Equipped with “watchdog” timer; Low power consumption, 5V/2.5A at maximum.

5. Other accessories:

Other accessories of IPC are basically compatible with PC, mainly including CPU, memory, video card, hard disk, floppy drive, keyboard, mouse, optical drive, display, etc.