The innovations that TwinCAT 3 provides for automation technology range from support of new programming environments for modular engineering concepts to a high-performance runtime that actively supports the latest IT technologies such as multi-core processors. The engineering has been integrated into the state-of-the-art Microsoft Visual Studio platform, placing numerous modern software engineering tools at the automation specialist’s disposal. In order to master the ever increasing amount of software in a machine or plant in the future, the control software must be modularly structured. That approach is fully possible with TwinCAT 3 and modules can be written in several different programming languages. In addition to the established languages of IEC 61131, now extended by object orientation, further languages are now available in C/C++ and Matlab/Simulink. These modules can be distributed to different cores of a multi-core CPU in the TwinCAT real-time and can be executed deterministically, even with the smallest cycle times.
The expanded toolset available via eXtended Automation (XA), which was introduced with TwinCAT 3, is now available in all Beckhoff markets. For evaluation purposes, a trial version of TwinCAT 3 is available as a free download – the full range of functions can be enabled any number of times for seven days.
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