984-351 Automation Controller
Overview
When I joined the industrial automation industry, there had already been two generations of Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs), used in heavy industries such as automobile manufacturing, mining, chemical processing, and a variety of other applications.
The 984-351 was a drop-in replacement for a previous generation of industrial controller.
Heavy manufacturers have a huge investment in their physical plant, much of it built to endure decades of hard use. This product allowed manufacturers to install new control capabilities in their factories, without rebuilding the machines they need to control.
This product sold well due to a large satisfied installed base eager to upgrade their technology while preserving their physical plant.
For me this was mainly an 8051 project, adapting the then-current generation of x86 controllers to control the installed base of machinery.
Developed for:
