Operating Systems Used for PC-based Control

By Control Engineering Staff November 14, 2002

Operating Systems Used for PC-based Control(% of respondents)

Present
In three years

Standard Windows NT
76.2%
8.9%

Windows NT w/extension
19.5%
29.1%

Windows CE
6.5%
22.1%

MS-DOS
23.4%
8.0%

QNX
5.2%
4.5%

VxWorks
3.5%
5.5%

Unix
8.7%
7.3%

Linux
3.0%
16.6%

Source: Control Engineering with data from IMS Research, 2001

Though Microsoft Windows NT is established as the dominant operating system for PC-based control, reliability concerns have led some users to seek alternative systems, according to ”The European & North American Markets for PC-Based Control Software” by Intex Management Services Ltd. (IMS, Wellingborough, Northants, England; Austin, TX). The study found that NT will still dominate, but CE and Linux will begin to challenge it, especially in embedded systems.