Inside the competition for the first PLC - Control Engineering

In April of 1968, a young Hydra-Matic engineer, Dave Emmett, proposed the development of what he called a “Standard Machine Controller.” The controller he envisioned would replace the relay systems that controlled machine operations. Courtesy: RedViking

Inside the competition for the first PLC

The race to develop the first programmable logic controllers was underway inside General Motors’ Hydra-Matic Transmission Division in Ypsilanti, Michigan, in 1970. Three finalists had very different architectures.