More power to programmable automation controllers

Designers of processing-intensive control applications can now triple their processing performance with a new family of Compact FieldPoint controllers from National Instruments.

Designers of processing-intensive control applications can now triple their processing performance with a new family of Compact FieldPoint controllers from National Instruments.

The new cFP-2100 controllers include a 200MHz Pentium-class Vega processor that, when combined with new SDRAM, is more than three times faster than previous controllers.

The new Compact FieldPoint devices are programmable automation controllers (PACs), delivering the flexibility of PCs with the ruggedness of PLCs.

The Compact FieldPoint 2100 family of controllers offers additional improvements compared with existing controllers, including more memory - increased from 16/32 to 64/128Mbyte RAM - and a larger industrial-grade temperature range - expanded from -25 to +60C, to -40 to +70C.

The new controllers feature SDRAM that can lock memory access to the CPU clock, resulting in faster data transfer.

Unlike EDO RAM used in previous controllers, SDRAM facilitates simultaneous data transfer to the CPU while another set of data are being prepared for transfer.

By combining these new controllers with the latest NI software tools such as the new NI LabView WriteRead virtual instrument (VI) and new AI/AO combo modules such as the cFP-AIO-600 and the cFP-AIO-610, engineers and scientists can substantially reduce system jitter.

This jitter reduction results from improved communication between the controller and the I/O modules, as well as faster data management.

The cFP-2100 controllers deliver additional features including an internal temperature sensor, serial console redirect and new, faster LabView VIs.

The increased performance and new features in the cFP-2100 family make the controllers ideal for processing-intensive applications such as high-speed control and high channel count distributed I/O.

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