EVOLUTION OF PROCESS CONTROL TECHNOLOGY

2007-03-23T19:10:00.000-07:00

Controls technology today is sky-rocketing tremendously and it is getting extremely competitive in pricing, products and features. The evolution of controls technology today is linked with the PC hardware and software technology revolution. With the presence of multicore processor technologies, static memory drives and etc, the PC capatibility allows the control systems to work more efficiently and freely. Moreover, with the Microsoft OS domination in the world market today, all the major controls companies in the world has little choice but to follow the Micosoft trend. The other influences in the controls technology today is networking power of the interface and communication devices. Copper mediums are less used for high speed interfaces and fiber optic medium is getting more popular today. But the ultimate winner will definately the wireless technology.

In a nutshell, super competitive control systems will be emerging in the next decade and it will take the controls technology to a level which can be roughly quantified as 1000 folds compared to the primitive control systems in late 70s and early 80s. And easily evolved around the most powerful systems in the last millennium 100 times in terms of performance.

From the overview of the controls technology direction, we know 1 thing for sure, the evolution of process control systems are driven by the multicore processors technology, universal OS, high speed wireless communication devices and super static memory drives.

In the 70s, 80s and 90s, all the control technology is proprietary and every major controls company have their in-house developed hardware technology and software applications. It is easy to compare who is better and cheaper. The first ones who made it to the market will be the leader because each of the controls systems of that era is unique. They use diffent OSes, processors, storage memory, network protocols and network mediums. The drawback of the old school controls is that once the end-user invested in the technology, it gives them almost zero reasons to migrate to another control system. This has indirectly made the price of the legacy control systems soar sky high. Once you hooked you will be stucked for good. Other disadvantages are of the old era are the difficulties of getting parts and skilled workforces. The parts can be only purchased from the vendor who supplied the system and the skills to mantain and upgrade the system stays with them. That made it very profitable for the early birds and competition those days, without the existance of internets is not even a fraction close to the battle field today.

Today, all the hardware, software, data connectivity medium and protocol are readily available and accessible to the world. The ironic part of the gigantic leap is that just any one can do it! What company A can do, can be done by company B, C, D and so on. The battle has begun. Super open system product will emerge and price wars is inevitable.

The argument today is... who will be the winner. I personally think that the major controls cake will be splitted up into tiny pieces and more small controls company will emerge. There won't be a definate dominant player in the market. The good news to the industry is that the end-users get more powerful systems, more choices of vendors, inter-changable hardware and workforce because of the open standards that leads the evolution.

Every product has the same capacity and can be equally competitive in pricing. What do you think? How do you choose a controls product? What determines a sale? Everyone can be a winner... or a loser!

All the controls companies claim that they are the best but the fact is the products from the big boys are quite similar/competitive because of the OPEN SYSTEM. Undeniably, those with bigger market share and installed references will still stand a better chance. I guess, it is now the era of super sales and site support men to make the difference!

Control Technology

EVOLUTION OF PROCESS CONTROL TECHNOLOGY