Yokogawa Electric, headquartered in Musashino, Tokyo, announces the development and international release of its CENTUM CS 1000 Production Control System for the small- and medium-scale process control market. The CS 1000 Production Control System is positioned as one of the core systems for realization of Yokogawa Electric's "Enterprise Technology Solutions." The new system weds the high reliability, superior control functions, and engineering environment of distributed control systems to the latest operating environments of general-purpose computers to provide an open system.

Changing Market for Production Control Systems

Rapid advances in open network technologies and information exchange technologies have made it possible to integrate the many information systems of companies, which previously existed as independent systems, from production sites to the level of management control. This is also changing user demands for introduction of operating systems in plants and factories, and generating requirements for integrated system architecture that exceeds the limits of current production control systems and engineering services to allow operation of plants and factories from a perspective of company-level management.
Yokogawa Electric will deliver the latest field equipment and control systems to properly respond to these changes in the market. Additionally, the latest technologies for advanced control, operational support, simulations, and other process control operations have also been realized, and system proposal capabilities have been upgraded across a wide range, including integration of production control systems with Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and company information systems, to provide optimal solutions to customer needs.
Yokogawa Electric is developing its systems operations based on its concept of "Enterprise Technology Solutions." One of the core systems for realizing this concept is the CENTUM CS 1000 Production Control System.

Strengths of the CENTUM CS 1000 Production Control System

The CENTUM CS 1000 Production Control System is a product developed by adding the latest information networking technologies to knowhow accumulated from the delivery of more than 12,000 distributed control systems by Yokogawa Electric, the leading domestic manufacturer of distributed control systems.

System Structure

The CENTUM CS 1000 Production Control System is comprised of a human interface station, which performs operation, monitoring, and engineering tasks, and a field control station, which effects control through connection to on-site sensors. A general personal computer, which allows compatibility between Yokogawa's exclusive human interface station and other personal computers and terminals, is used in the human interface station. Windows NT is employed as the operating system of the human interface station, and Yokogawa Electric's exclusive operation and monitoring software and engineering software run on that operating system. The control bus that links these systems employs a highly reliable dedicated bus, VLnet, which is compatible with the strong dedicated bus of the CENTUM CS Integrated Production Control System.

Main Strengths

1. Open system architecture, engineering, and operating environment
   
   Windows NT is employed as the operating system. Additionally, the new system can also handle the Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE) of the Microsoft Corporation, a standard function for open data exchanges, and the OLE for Process Control (OPC) promoted by the OPC committee. This allows simultaneous running of Yokogawa Electric's exclusive software and commercial software such as Excel and on-screen monitoring by the human interface station, and data exchanges are also possible. Additionally, systems can be integrated with ERP packages, including R/3 of SAP Aktiengesellshaft. These capabilities are producing an open environment in engineering, operation, system architecture, and other systems capabilities.

2. Engineering functions that contribute to greater efficiency
   
   Building a virtual controller into the human interface station allows testing of application software (debugging) without connection to the field control station (a virtual test function). If a virtual controller is included in a laptop personal computer, testing and system architecture can be controlled by a single laptop personal computer from any location. The virtual function provided by this virtual controller was realized by Yokogawa Electric's CENTUM CS Integrated Production Control System, an exclusive function of Yokogawa Electric. This has caused major improvement of engineering efficiency in the system architecture of distributed control systems.

3. Advanced control functions provide high reliability and performance
   
   The functions of the field control station are redundant by a "synchronous execution hot stand-by system." Under this system, the stand-by computer is always synchronized with the computer in service during system operation to effect operational control. Therefore, continuity of control can be maintained by switching to the stand-by computer if a problem occurs on the computer in service. This function is the first in the industry in small- and medium-scale distributed control systems and provides high reliability.
   Additionally, a "unit control function" permits users to stack equipment and control devices and treat them as a single unit instrument, and an "SFC block function" allows handling of sequential function charts, on which processes can be graphically represented through an open language that conforms to the IEC standard. Thus, Yokogawa Electric is integrating the latest technologies developed from distributed control systems into control functions, which provides high reliability and performance even for small- and medium-scale systems.

Superior operating characteristics for engineering, operation, monitoring, and maintenance
Advanced software for operation, monitoring, and engineering has been realized based on Windows NT due to Yokogawa Electric's strong results in distributed control systems. The operating systems of distributed control systems and the operating systems of personal computers have been fused, which allows ease of operation based on integrated operating systems in a multi-windows environment. At the same time, CENTUM CS 1000 provides the reliability, real-time capabilities, and security features required by process control systems. The distributed control systems currently on the market use general personal computers that all employ SCADA software. However, the CENTUM CS 1000 provides high reliability and functions that are clearly superior to these other systems through software independently developed by Yokogawa Electric.

Yokogawa Electric's Development of Operations in the Systems Field

Yokogawa Electric is upgrading its technical capabilities in the diverse systems for instrumentation in order to provide optimal solutions based on its concept of "Enterprise Technology Solutions." This effort includes business cooperation with Aspen Technology Inc., which has technologies for variable forecasting control, process databases, and production control support functions, and approval as an implementation partner and development of an interface package for the R/3 ERP system of SAP Aktiengesellshaft. Yokogawa Electric also purchased the GTI-IA Company, which has advanced safety systems for processes. Establishment of a joint venture with Mitsui Toatsu Chemicals, which has premiere modeling technologies, and the buyout of the Marex Company, which has process database technologies, have also supported the upgrading of technical capabilities.
The CENTUM CS 1000 Production Control System is one of the core systems for delivering "Enterprise Technology Solutions" and is a product developed mainly for small- and medium-scale process control markets. Yokogawa Electric will develop systems equipment such as the CENTUM CS 3000 for a large-scale process control market in the future based on its policy of total response to user needs.
The CENTUM CS 1000 Production Control System will be manufactured at the headquarters plant and Yokogawa Electric Asia Pte. Ltd., a subsidiary in Singapore. This new system will be marketed through worldwide sales bases and agency sales networks, and Yokogawa Electric intends to consolidate its position as the leading manufacturer in the market for small- and medium-scale distributed control systems based on a policy of rapid market expansion.

*Windows NT and Excel are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation, U.S.A.
*R/3 is a registered trademark of SAP Aktiengesellshaft, Germany.