Thomas Gusenleitner, Gerhard Lettner, ENGEL AUSTRIA GmbH

Using Linux and Open Source in an industrial environment is becoming more and more common, in part to ensure participation with daily improvements and compatibility with future development. One of the most important requirements in the environment of industrial machinery control is realtime, so we decided to evaluate RT-Linux on different hardware platforms. To generate a realistic load which is comparable to the real machinery control a simplified version of machinery control, called testplc, was developed and used in the hardware assessments conducted. The results of this evaluation should give a clear statement about the applicability of each hardware platform for the machinery control area.