The new PACSystems family of controllers from GE Fanuc features a single control engine and universal programming environment - which provides portability across multiple hardware platforms to deliver a true convergence of control choices. This innovative platform offers application flexibility, productivity improvements, and easier migration.  Industry-leading IAN magazine recently honored GE Fanuc with an Automation Excellence Award for the new PACSystems family.

"PACSystems represents a revolutionary change in the control industry, one that enables control convergence rather than mere integration of disparate parts and pieces," said Bill Estep, vice president of automation equipment for GE Fanuc Automation.  "With one engine, coupled with a single development tool, users can take advantage of a powerful engineering environment for multiple applications.  Through this innovation, the GE Fanuc PACSystems family addresses major engineering and business issues-such as higher productivity and communications openness. This flexible technology can help users boost the overall performance of their automation systems, reduce engineering costs, and significantly decrease concerns regarding short- and long-term migration and platform longevity."

By combining new technology with existing hardware systems, the PACSystems family provides a seamless migration path that protects your investment in both I/O and applications development, enabling easy upgrades for improved control functionality.

Craig Resnick, director of research for ARC Advisory Group, said, "The PLC has evolved by incorporating open standard interfaces, multi-domain functionality, distributed modular architectures, and modern software capabilities integrated as turnkey automation solutions.  The new PAC concept will play a major role in plant and factory automation, today and in the future."

GE Fanuc's new PACSystems control engine is built on standard embedded architecture with commercial deterministic operating systems, making the engine portable to multiple platforms and allowing you to choose the hardware and programming language that best suits each particular application. The system supports distributed I/O through such standards-based communications as Ethernet, Profibus, DeviceNet, and Genius networks.

Award winning, CIMPLICITY Machine Edition software from GE Fanuc provides the universal engineering development environment for programming, configuration and diagnostics. With tag-based programming, a library of reusable code and a test edit mode for improved online troubleshooting, CIMPLICITY Machine Edition is a user-friendly environment that can increase design flexibility and improve engineering efficiency and productivity.

The first GE Fanuc PACSystems platform to be released is the high performance RX7i, which will be available in the second quarter.  Offering four-times the speed of existing PLC backplanes and up to 10 MB of memory usable for programming and documentation storage, the PACSystems RX7i is VME64 based, supports all standard VME modules including Series 90-70 I/O, and incorporates industry-leading technology from GE Fanuc’s embedded systems group.  Additional platforms will be available throughout the year.

For more information, contact the GE Fanuc Information Center or visit the PACSystems web site.