Benefits

• ABConnect gives you another choice of programming environment for PLC communications. You get all the benefits of Java, including portability, security, reliability, and a massive library of open-source components.

• The included web server and web application allow you to put PLC data on your intranet quickly and easily, using the full power of HTML and whichever browser you choose. Since it's a full webserver, the size of your site is not limited, nor is the number of connections. You can easily make your PLC data available throughout your plant, which allows operators and managers to make better decisions.

• For less interactive applications (e.g. production monitoring) ABConnect in a web server is a great alternative to traditional HMI packages. For the cost of one connection, your data is available to any computer on your network using nothing but the web browser that is already installed.

• The combination of web server and ABConnect requires far less computing power than a typical HMI package. We've seen terrific performance on a 200 MHz Pentium with 64MB.

  For Systems Integrators, this means you can add web capability to your machines without adding expensive or proprietary hardware. If you already have PC-based HMI, you can easily web-enable it.

  For plant users, this means you can web-enable your equipment using older, minimally-configured or "throw-away" PC's.

• You can use the full power of the Java system in your PLC communications applications. Including database access, connection to enterprise systems, integrated networking and XML handling.

• Your applications can run on any platform with a Java Virtual Machine. This gives you the flexibility to use the hardware and operating system that is best suited to your environment.

• All configuration and tag definitions are contained in XML-formatted text files. For system integrators, this means you can use standard revision-control tools to manage your configuration files the same way you manage source code. Additionally, you can use standard XML tools to generate and manage the configuration. For instance, you could generate scan sets from an equipment list, or automatically generate as-built documentation from the configuration files.

• StratusCom knows industrial software, and we know manufacturing. We've been there on the night shift, on weekends, and on Christmas eve. You won't get a lot of flashy features from us, but this package just runs, and runs, and runs. It automatically recovers from network failures, power failures, and just about anything else.

  It is Serious Industrial Software.