Robert Schwebel, producer of Linux-Automation.com, provided this report about growing Linux momentum in Germany's industrial automation industry, as evidenced by the recent SPS/IPC/DRIVES Trade Fair held in Nuernberg, Germany. Schwebel writes . . .

During recent years, the SPS/IPC/DRIVES Trade Fair has grown to become one of the most important annual events in the German industrial automation industry. At the recent event, 627 exhibitors represented all aspects of the market in four halls of the Nuernberg Fair Center. As evidenced by the exhibition, Linux is becoming increasingly important to German industry, as more companies than ever before exhibited products based on the free operating system. Here is a brief summary of the companies that showed Linux-based products (which, increasingly, represent more than simply “Linux runs on our x86 board”) . . .

• Addi-Data — this manufacturer of measurement boards now has Linux drivers for some boards — if customer response is positive, they plan to support all their other boards within one year.

• AuTech — this company presented hardware for PLC applications at their booth, together with Yellowstone Software (they are making the soft PLC part of the product). A very realistic visualization was done with Flash sequences. Yellowstone's soft PLC provides an IEC-1131 compliant graphical development environment.

• BFAD — the Bureau for Analogue and Digital Circuits showed Linux-based solutions for Jumptec's DIMM PCs at the cooperative booth of Jumptec.

• EuroDesign — a credit card sized board with integrated ISA and PCI interface was shown, running Linux. With a self-developed fast boot loader, and without a normal and expensive BIOS, the time to boot was less than 6 seconds!

• Fraenz & Jaeger — Fraenz and Jaeger showed the well known soft PLC “DPS” and some of it's applications. Further more, there was a DIN rail solution for SSV Embedded's DIL-NET-PC which is perfectly suited for Linux based automation applications. Another Linux machine was doing fast optical barcode
  recognition on books.

• Heitec — although this large automation company (a partner of Siemens) did not actually showcase Linux in their booth, Heitec employees informed us that the company is currently develops customer-specific automation projects based on LabView running on Linux systems (they also support NT).

• IBS — National Semiconductor's Geode chip was the heart of a small embedded board which can be used in customer-specific applications as well on standardized PC/104-Plus boards. At the booth, a Linux-based demo application was shown.

• info team — they displayed an Open Source (but not Free Software) IEC-1131 compliant programming system. Unfortunately, large portions of the software are not currently ported to Linux.

• InoNet — they displayed Linux-based office communication servers in 19-inch racks. Companies are able to install a server for most Internet services without much knowledge. The systems are configurable by a web browser.

• inperio — this young startup company specializes in the adaptation of Linux to embedded systems. In their booth, PC/104 boards of a strategic partner company, EEPD, were shown running Linux in less than 2 MB of memory.

• Merz — they are currently working on a European Union project to develop an OPC server for Linux. Some Linux based communication solutions were shown at the exhibition.

• reLinux — at the SSV Embedded booth, reLinux presented solutions based on the DIL-NET-PC. In a Fischertechnik horseshoe, a magnet and some sensors are used to make a sphere hover. The control system was accomplished via a realtime task on the DIL-NET-PC.

• SSV Embedded — this company has exhibited at most of the German industry fairs during the last year, presenting it's DIL-NET-PC, which has a form-factor of a standard 68-pin dual-in-line (DIL) memory module. This year they showed a version without the built-in 10 megabit network of previous versions, which draws less 200 mW and is ideally suited for mobile instruments.

• Visual Systems GmbH — they demonstrated Linux based industrial process control software. It allows you to generate a visualization interface by means of a graphical editor.

You can find more information about all these companies at the Linux-Automation.com website.

 
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