Objects ignite control software movement

Staff -- Control Engineering, 12/1/1998

If software is washing over the control and automation landscape, then object-oriented programming is riding the crest of that wave. Several object-oriented trailblazers exhibited at ISA Expo/98.

• At the Sun Microsystems Inc. (Palo Alto, Calif.) booth, Cyberonix Corp. (Berkeley, Calif.) unveiled its JPLC Integrator, a PLC server that can work with any of four proprietary PLC environments to create a common platform and make their data accessible to the enterprise IT infrastructure. JPLC uses Sun's Java technology to wrap data taken from the PLCs into objects that can be published to web pages or pushed to any client with a Java Virtual Machine. Based on a Sun Ultra 5 workstation, JPLC can take data from Allen-Bradley, GE Fanuc, Schneider Automation, and Siemens environments and translate it into Java objects that comply with IEC 61131.
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• Using a model railway exhibit, Sun Microsystems Inc. and EDS (Plano, Tex.) demonstrated TLX for the Solaris operating environment, a meta-architecture with embedded-level controls that delivers real-time, voice-enabled process control across an enterprise. Designed to add flexibility and increase productivity, TLX uses Sun's Java programming language and Solaris operating environment so users can manage complex systems with minimal human intervention.
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• Object Automation (OA, Santa Ana, Calif.) and its partners, such as Mitsubishi Electric Corp. (Tokyo, Japan), demonstrated Object-Based Control solutions using OAenterprise 98 software and featured future applications embracing the IEEE 1451 standard, Windows CE solutions, and object-based MES applications. The company showed OAenterprise's openness and extensibility with help from Canary Labs, Cleveland Motion Control, Curry Controls, International Laboratory Corp., Intrinsyc Technologies, Moore Industries, and Think & Do Software Inc.
  For more information, visit www.controleng.com/info.