Abstract
Information Technology (IT) now impacts on all aspects of modern society (personal, commercial and industrial). The advances in IT may broadly be categorized into the following subsets of technologies: integrated circuits, communications, software engineering and Graphical User Interfaces. In the context of Industrial Automation (IA) it can be seen that some communication protocols, for example Modbus which was first introduced in the 1970’s, has under gone numerous updates driven by IT developments with associated considerable improvements in performance and capability. By contrast some, for example HART which was first introduced in the 1980’s, whilst it has undergone revisions it does not fully utilize the capabilities that IT can provide. For higher level IA systems they can be divided into four generations which can each be associated with specific IT developments. The first generation IA system is based on simple Proportional, Integral and Derivative (PID) controllers and ruggedized microprocessor based Programmable Logic Controllers (PLC). IA systems expanded in both complexity and scope through these generations to include Distributed Control Systems (DCS’s) and Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA). The fifth generation of IA systems may be associated with IT developments both on and over the horizon that include: Cloud Computing, Cyber Security and Internet of Things. Responses to these technologies include: General Electric (GE) Predix and Siemens MindSphere. Regardless of how IA is categorized there can be no doubt that IT is responsible for major technical developments – a process that is likely to continue.
Highlights
1.1 Developments in Information Technology – A PerspectiveInformation Technology has undergone rapid advances with ever increasing capabilities – the pace of which is likely to accelerate
That is not to say HART is of no use, rather it is a technology with advantages and disadvantages and employed
This paper has outlined the developments in Information Technology and categorized them to assist with their analysis – integrated circuits, communications, software engineering and user interfaces
Summary
Information Technology has undergone rapid advances with ever increasing capabilities – the pace of which is likely to accelerate To best understand these developments, IT may be categorized into the following subsets: integrated circuits, communications, software engineering and Graphical User Interfaces. The most significant development in communication technology was the development in 1983 of the Open Systems Interconnect (OSI) conceptual model. By the 1980’s TCP/IP was widely and universally accepted as the first practical implementation of the OSI model Increases in computational power allowed the introduction of pull down menu’s colours and rich user interfaces These interfaces include the use of hypertext thereby linking information on a user’s screen on a global basis via TCP/IP. The question is ‘how have developments affected Industrial Automation systems?’ and what is likely to occur next?
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