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.
