M
Hello,
I'm concerned that I might be perceived as a scared engineer with a fear of innovation, so I'm budgeting to replace a PLC (Pathetic Little
Computer) that controls a three-roll mill with an IBM 2064 zSeries Model 116 running Linux and AutomationX software. I want to be open-minded.
I've looked at other options for computers but the IBM zSeries seems to have more available computing power, good data distribution and
computational flexibility. I've got a couple of questions:
1. My I/O is Profibus DP, but I don't know if PCI slots are available on the zSeries. Would it make sense to simply remove the existing I/O and
switch to an Ethernet based solution such as Wago? This would mean that my initial investment in 30 discrete I/O and 3 analog I/O would have to
be totally replaced.
2. Should I budget for a Parallel Sysplex configuration (a server pair), or would the zSeries by itself be reliable enough?
3. The price of the zSeries Model 116 seems high. I could save about $1.6 million by going with the Model 108 (according to
http://www.xephon.com/targetprices/css/targetprices.html). Has anybody tried this configuration successfully? Did the I/O updates seem slow?
Sincerely (not really),
Mark Wells
President
Runfactory Systems Inc.
http://www.runfactory.com1235 Bay Street, Suite 400
Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5R 3K4
Ph. 416-934-5038
Fax 416-352-5206
I'm concerned that I might be perceived as a scared engineer with a fear of innovation, so I'm budgeting to replace a PLC (Pathetic Little
Computer) that controls a three-roll mill with an IBM 2064 zSeries Model 116 running Linux and AutomationX software. I want to be open-minded.
I've looked at other options for computers but the IBM zSeries seems to have more available computing power, good data distribution and
computational flexibility. I've got a couple of questions:
1. My I/O is Profibus DP, but I don't know if PCI slots are available on the zSeries. Would it make sense to simply remove the existing I/O and
switch to an Ethernet based solution such as Wago? This would mean that my initial investment in 30 discrete I/O and 3 analog I/O would have to
be totally replaced.
2. Should I budget for a Parallel Sysplex configuration (a server pair), or would the zSeries by itself be reliable enough?
3. The price of the zSeries Model 116 seems high. I could save about $1.6 million by going with the Model 108 (according to
http://www.xephon.com/targetprices/css/targetprices.html). Has anybody tried this configuration successfully? Did the I/O updates seem slow?
Sincerely (not really),
Mark Wells
President
Runfactory Systems Inc.
http://www.runfactory.com1235 Bay Street, Suite 400
Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5R 3K4
Ph. 416-934-5038
Fax 416-352-5206