When Beckhoff elevated the industrial computer to the status of a central control system four decades ago, a paradigm shift occurred. For 40 years, PC-based control has been putting the power of IT standards and Moore’s Law directly into the hands of machine and system engineers. With the bundling of PLC, motion control, and technologies such as measurement technology, robotics, and vision on a single integrated platform, users today benefit from outstanding performance combined with significant cost and space savings.
In the 1980s, industrial production was characterized by the classic, hardware-based PLC. The PLC was considered reliable, but on the downside, it was inflexible and expensive, with limited computing power. In 1986, Beckhoff responded to these limitations by delivering the first PC-based machine control system, which gave the target application – a double miter saw – a significant boost in productivity.
The foundation for your competitive edge
The decisive technological step was the abstraction of the PLC function from proprietary hardware to a highly flexible solution based on industrial IT components. Beckhoff ensured deterministic behavior by developing its own real-time extensions for standard operating systems – mainly Windows initially, but also others since then, including TwinCAT/BSD and Linux®. Machine builders were thus able to benefit directly from the rapid innovation cycles in IT and increasing processor performance. In the 1980s, for example, PC-based control brought floppy disk drives directly to the machine. Later, Ethernet communication opened up new possibilities in production and for integrating production into databases, ERP systems, and IoT solutions. Today, PC-based control forms the basis for physical AI in the factory.
Appropriate I/O systems were required in order to use the ever-increasing computing power of industrial PCs up to field level. Beckhoff therefore flanked PC-based control with its own communication systems. Initially, data transmission took place via Lightbus. Introduced in 2003, EtherCAT has since become a global standard that is deployed by users across all industries and markets today. In parallel, the TwinCAT automation environment – which celebrates its 30th anniversary this year – provided the basis for the software. Since its market launch, TwinCAT has developed into a holistic solution that combines all automation functions in a single integrated software platform. In addition to classic logic and motion control, the spectrum also includes safety and measurement technology, HMI, and IoT connectivity, as well as image processing, robotics, and industrial AI tools. The optimum synchronization of all processes via the PC-based controller gives users huge advantages in terms of dynamics and precision, for example.
From today’s perspective, the concept for success that is PC-based control impresses with its exceptional scalability and significant reduction in interfaces. “A high-performance industrial PC, an equally powerful fieldbus interface with peripheral devices such as sensors and actuators connected to it, and control software with real-time capabilities for motion and logic control – that’s all it takes,” sums up company founder and Managing Director Hans Beckhoff. This approach provides the capability to consolidate all machine functions – from a simple PLC to highly complex robotics – into a single controller. As well as saving space, time, and money, this also eliminates latency between distributed controllers.
In line with the Beckhoff philosophy, Beckhoff has been developing and manufacturing all electronic assemblies and motherboards itself in Westphalia since the 1980s, to the highest quality made in Germany standards. This not only offers users security and long-term availability, but also enables them to continue implementing the latest IT standards and processor generations in machine building.
Four decades after the launch of PC-based control, the industry is increasingly turning away from proprietary black box solutions and focusing on the future viability of open, standardized systems. After all, PC-based control technology provides an ideal basis for the required IT/OT convergence as well as for leading technologies such as machine learning and physical AI.
As it celebrates its 40th anniversary, PC-based control is credibly able to assert itself as providing a future-proof and high-performance foundation for the manufacturing industry.
40 years of PC-based control: A paradigm shift makes history – Faces of innovation
PC-based control celebrates its anniversary. What began as a technological paradigm shift has developed into a genuine success story over the past 40 years. Yet behind this story are not only innovative technology and the courage to do things differently, but also special people who have been passionate about automation for years and even decades. We are speaking to these pioneers of PC-based control to hear how the success story of PC-based control is reflected in the work they do every day.
Relentless increases in performance
I have been familiar with Beckhoff products for more than 30 years and actively involved in the success of our industrial PCs, panels, and Panel PCs for more than 20 years. PC-based control is both a blessing and a curse for us in IPC product management.
Why? One component of the success of PC-based control is the continuously increasing performance of CPUs. Driven by global use, tech giants such as Intel and AMD are developing more powerful processors at reasonable price points year on year.
What a blessing it is when the key component of your own solution is being improved, optimized, and made more powerful at a seemingly unstoppable rate. At the same time, however, it is also a curse, because turning globally available CPUs into reliable PC-based control hardware requires a great deal of know-how and extensive integration work. External environmental conditions, external electromagnetic interference, the support of special interfaces that were often developed many years ago, 24/7 continuous operation, the highest demands on the real-time behavior of the CPUs, and the availability of a CPU over many years are just some of the tasks that need to be solved.
However, if you systematically overcome these and other challenges time and time again, you can enjoy uninterrupted technological progress and increased performance. This is how the outstanding capabilities of PC-based control have become the catalyst for a successful global hardware business.
What a blessing that we invented PC-based control 40 years ago and have been offering unique, high-performance automation software in the form of TwinCAT for 30 years. A real win-win situation not only for us, but also for our customers!
Long-term availability as a key strength
Embedded PCs are an important pillar of the PC-based control philosophy by Beckhoff. The basic idea of moving the industrial PC to the DIN rail was born in the early 2000s and was first implemented as a series product in 2003. The aim was to create a PC-based controller with the smallest possible dimensions, direct connection of bus terminals, and a flexible embedded Windows operating system. This concept has given rise to a broad portfolio of embedded PCs that still stand out today due to their special properties: compact design, flash memory, embedded operating systems, scalable CPU portfolio, direct I/O integration, modular expandability, fanless design whenever possible, and a wide range of optional interfaces.
Long-term availability of at least ten years – followed by a 10-year service period – is one of the key strengths of the CX series from Beckhoff. The very first device, the CX1000, serves as the best example of this: It was not discontinued until 2024 and was therefore available on the market unchanged for as long as 21 years. This exceptionally long availability is only possible because Beckhoff develops and manufactures all the electronics for the embedded PCs, including motherboards, in-house.
The CX series Embedded PCs have continuously and significantly promoted the spread of PC-based control: Their compact, PLC-based form factor appeals to traditional control engineers, while their fully-fledged PC capabilities combined with TwinCAT automation software tick all the right boxes.
Mapping machines completely in software
TwinCAT is the central element of PC-based control. Alongside IPC, I/O, and drives, it is the software that connects all components and allows them to work in perfect synchronization.
TwinCAT transforms a PC – regardless of the underlying operating system – into a powerful control system that combines PLC, motion control, safety, measurement technology, vision, and AI functions. All of this is built on the real-time capability that TwinCAT has been providing for different operating systems for the last 40 years.
While PC-based control technology was ridiculed in its early days many years ago, it is now an established standard. With TwinCAT, we have significantly shaped and continuously developed this standard. Today, TwinCAT is the most widely used tool in the field of PC-based control technology in the world.
With PC-based control and TwinCAT, the machine or system can be completely mapped in software – the entire expertise of the machine builder is contained in the application software. This means that the machine builder remains independent of hardware device and operating system. TwinCAT users have been enjoying this benefit for three decades already.
New dimensions for high-end automation
The change from conventional PLC to PC-based control technology marked a quantum leap in automation. PC-based control is scalable, flexible, and offers virtually unlimited computing capacity. Its power supports sophisticated control algorithms, multi-axis control, image processing, and sophisticated application programs in a single control system. And all this while achieving cycle times of less than a millisecond.
In comparison, traditional PLC architectures – as well as conventional fieldbuses and almost all industrial Ethernet systems – require several milliseconds. This may be sufficient for very simple control tasks, but for highly dynamic machines, precise motion control applications, or synchronized multi-axis systems, every additional millisecond means a measurable loss of quality and performance. Shorter cycle times ensure faster reactions, higher throughput, greater accuracy, more stable control, and ultimately increased productivity – an advantage that PC-based control makes significant use of.
This is where EtherCAT comes into play: As the only fieldbus system that fully supports the performance of PC-based control, it does not create a bottleneck. On the contrary, EtherCAT delivers the ultra-fast communication that this technology demands. The special functional principle of EtherCAT means that it places hardly any load on the PC and requires no additional hardware: It is implemented entirely in software via the existing Ethernet interface.
The result is a perfect symbiosis of maximum computing power and highest communication speed – PC-based control and EtherCAT drive each other to peak performance and open up new dimensions for high-end automation.
Innovative capability without proprietary boundaries
Whenever I talk to customers and partners in international markets today, the extent to which PC-based control has influenced Beckhoff’s worldwide success is made clear time and time again. From the very beginning, the principle of PC-based control was more than just a change in technology – it was a real paradigm shift in automation.
Today, around two thirds of the Beckhoff sales are generated outside Germany. The underlying reason is the openness and flexibility of PC-based control. Beckhoff connects “Made & Manufacturing in Germany” with powerful standard hardware and intelligent software, enabling the company to take a flexible approach to delivering solutions to a wide range of requirements in various locations all over the world – from semiconductor production in Asia to packaging machines in North America and highly automated production systems in Europe.
The strength of open standards such as Windows, Linux®, and EtherCAT is particularly evident in exports. They facilitate integration into existing IT and production landscapes and create trust among globally operating customers. For many partners, the ability to innovate without proprietary boundaries represents decisive added value.
The customers who have benefited the most are those who recognized the potential of PC-based control early on and consciously took this step – their willingness to break new ground has often paid off quickly. It is precisely this combination of openness, scalability, and innovative strength that has formed the basis for Beckhoff’s international success for 40 years.
A single architecture for all applications
The semiconductor industry places the highest demands on precision, real-time capability, reliability, and flexibility. Processes in the nanometer range require precisely synchronized movements, fast processing of large volumes of sensor data, and seamless integration of motion control, image processing, temperature control, and vacuum control.
PC-based control combines open-loop and closed-loop control along with visualization and communication on an open industrial PC platform, with EtherCAT providing support for deterministic and extremely fast data transmission.
The modularity and scalability of PC-based control technology means that all applications – from laboratory systems to large plants – can be mapped using an identical architecture. The flexible adaptability of the control system means that it can also respond quickly and efficiently to future requirements. This was something that the semiconductor industry recognized many years ago.
In combination with our TwinCAT software, special functions such as vision, safety controller, and AI-based process analysis are already integrated today. The long-term availability of our components and their compact design make Beckhoff PC-based control ideal for use in the semiconductor industry.
More flexibility and more protection
In intralogistics, many of the world’s largest end customers, including Walmart, Amazon, UPS, and FedEx, are headquartered in the USA. While Europe adopted PC-based control at an early stage, the US intralogistics industry preferred proprietary PLC solutions in the past. This trend is now changing rapidly.
The resilience of the supply chain is a key driver. The global supply chain crisis has exposed the weaknesses of closed PLC platforms. If components were not available, projects came to a standstill, and critical warehouse processes were disrupted. Open PC-based control platforms offer more flexibility and more protection for the supply chain.
The second major change is AI. Unlike previous technology trends that lacked immediate practical applicability, AI is already delivering measurable benefits in warehouse optimization and order processing. Companies are now realizing that AI-driven forecasting, predictive maintenance, and operational intelligence are becoming key competitive advantages.
The markets for e-commerce and parcel services are highly competitive. The pressure for faster deliveries, reliability, lower costs, simpler returns, and reduced product damage is constantly increasing – while profit margins are shrinking all the time. In response, companies are investing heavily in automation and AI. They are increasingly realizing that traditional proprietary PLC systems neither protect against future supply chain disruptions nor support full AI integration. Open PC-based control platforms have established themselves as the basis for intelligent, adaptable, and highly optimized warehouse processes.
The 10 major advantages of PC-based control
PC-based control technology provides a basis to help mechanical engineering navigate the fundamental change it is experiencing with the implementation of industrial digitalization.
A new level of flexibility and performance is being achieved by seamlessly integrating all automation functions as software modules and relocating them to industrial grade IT hardware.
The following arguments clearly show why a universal PC-based control platform is where the future of automation lies.
Our products and technologies for your industry
The PC and EtherCAT-based control technology from Beckhoff offers open and flexible automation solutions for your industry. On our industry pages we present the advantages of PC- and EtherCAT-based control technology, tailored to your industry. We supply you with further information around the typical areas of use and properties of our products, and we provide you with an overview of our reference reports.
PC Control customer magazine – The New Automation Technology Magazine
PC Control is Beckhoff Automation's international customer magazine, published four times a year and supplemented by additional special issues. It covers the full spectrum of New Automation Technology topics, primarily with expert interviews and technical articles on new products and technologies as well as inspiring reports on customer applications across the globe.