The PLC is "the Olympics of automation" says company boss Hans Beckhoff and regrets that this year's automation competition can only take place virtually. Beckhoff was able to limit the economic damage this year despite coronavirus: Compared to 2019, the company will achieve a turnover of around 920 million euros. This would correspond to a slight increase of 2 percent. For 2021, Hans Beckhoff then expects "strong growth" in the double-digit range.

The total turnover generated is split into the user sectors of mechanical engineering (70%), wind turbines (10%), building technology (7%) and process technology (5-7%). As in 2019, the company employs a total of 4350 people, including 1750 engineers.

The TwinCAT innovations

In terms of product technology, TwinCAT automation software in particular is undergoing some changes: Version TwinCAT 3 can communicate with HTTP(S) servers as an HTTP(S) client, for example to exchange data via a REST API. This HTTPS communication can now also be used to establish a connection with MindSphere from Siemens for the exchange of telemetry data. This connection is secured with TLS (Transpoyer Security) and also uses MindSphere-specific authentication mechanisms.

Beckhoff is also launching TwinCAT MTP on the market. The Module Type Package (MTP) is a modern approach to modularizing systems in the process industry. It defines an interface for simple orchestration and connection of modules to a higher-level control system. With TwinCAT MTP, TwinCAT enables project planning of the MTP as well as automatic code generation and thus opens up a path to efficient module development that is integrated into the rest of TwinCAT Engineering.

TwinCAT/BSD is designed by Beckhoff as a long-term successor to Windows CE, but is also suitable as an alternative to the more complex Windows 7 and 10 operating systems in many applications.

© Beckhoff

With TwinCAT/BSD, the company is now also presenting a new operating system that combines the advantages of Windows CE - low cost and small footprint - with the features of the major Windows operating systems. This makes it an alternative to Windows 7 or 10 in many application areas. TwinCAT/BSD combines the TwinCAT Runtime with FreeBSD, an industrially proven open source operating system. FreeBSD is Unix-compatible and, as an open source project, is continuously developed, improved and optimized by a large group of developers. The system - and thus also TwinCAT/BSD - supports ARM CPUs up to Intel Xeon processors and thus offers a scalable platform from small embedded controllers up to high-performance IPC controllers.

Embedded PC with AMD processors

With the CX20x3 Embedded PCs, devices with AMD processors are now available in the Beckhoff IPC range.

© Beckhoff Automation

But there is also something happening with the IPCs: with the CX20x3 Embedded PCs, Beckhoff is now also launching devices with AMD RyzenTM processors. The new series is suitable for 32- and 64-bit systems, i.e. for both TwinCAT 2 and TwinCAT 3. Microsoft Windows 10 IoT Enterprise 2019 LTSC or the new TwinCAT/BSD can be used as the operating system. Two Embedded PCs are currently available: the CX2033 - a fanless device without rotating components and with an AMD RyzenTM V1202B CPU (2.3 GHz clock frequency, two cores). And the CX2043 - a high-performance device with a ball-bearing and speed-monitored fan and AMD RyzenTM V1807B CPU (3.35 GHz clock frequency, four cores). The AMD processors are based on the Zen architecture and offer high computing power in conjunction with the high clock frequency. In addition, there is integrated graphics separated from the CPU cache, which enables very good real-time properties.