Beckhoff celebrates the 40th anniversary of its first PC-based machine control system

Control Design: For 40 years, PC-based control has put the power of IT standards and Moore’s Law for integrated circuits directly into the hands of machine builders and automation engineers. In the 1980s, industrial manufacturing was dominated by the hardware-based PLC. In 1986, Beckhoff responded by delivering the first industrial PC-based machine control system.