Sign-In
Cart
Soft PLC Architecture Explained: Deploying PC-Based Industrial Controllers for Flexible and Software-Defined Automation
Paperback
Technology & EngineeringProgramming
Publisher: Independently Published
Published: Jul 29 2026
Pages: 254
Weight: 1.31
Height: 0.53 Width: 8.50 Depth: 11.00
Language: English
A practical guide to modern industrial control, this book explains how soft PLCs work, where they fit, and how to design them for dependable plant-floor use. It focuses on PC-based controllers as real automation platforms, not just software concepts, and shows how architecture, timing, I/O, security, and deployment decisions shape day-to-day performance.
Readers get a structured view of the full stack, from runtime execution and memory models to fieldbus integration, diagnostics, and recovery behavior. The book also connects control logic with real operational concerns such as jitter, logging, versioning, commissioning, and change control, making it useful for engineers who need systems that are both flexible and maintainable.
Inside, you'll find coverage of:- Soft PLC fundamentals, including scan cycles, control responsibilities, and comparisons with traditional PLCs
- Core architecture, such as task scheduling, tag mapping, data blocks, communication layers, and I/O abstraction
- Real-time performance, with practical methods for measuring timing, reducing jitter, and building execution budgets
- Platform choices, including operating system behavior, CPU affinity, storage impact, and runtime isolation
- I/O and field integration, from direct and remote I/O to industrial Ethernet, analog signals, encoders, and safety inputs
- Software-defined automation, covering reusable control modules, recipes, parameters, events, and alarms
- Programming patterns, including state machines, function blocks, error handling, and sequencing logic
- Diagnostics and maintainability, with observability, logging strategies, health indicators, and dashboards
- Safety and reliability, including watchdogs, output inhibition, restart behavior, and controlled shutdowns
- Deployment and security, from release workflow and acceptance testing to access control and remote access protection
Why this book stands out: each chapter balances theory with a practical example, helping readers move from architecture decisions to implementation details. The final case study ties everything together in an end-to-end machine design, showing how a soft PLC project can be built, tested, commissioned, and supported in the real world.
Ideal for automation engineers, controls developers, system integrators, and technical leaders who want a clear, field-oriented view of software-based industrial control.
Also in
Technology & Engineering
All Data Are Local: Thinking Critically in a Data-Driven Society
Loukissas, Yanni Alexander
Paperback
The Age of Living Machines: How Biology Will Build the Next Technology Revolution
Hockfield, Susan
Paperback
Ingenious Patents: Bubble Wrap, Barbed Wire, Bionic Eyes, and Other Pioneering Inventions
Ikenson, Ben
Bennett, Jay
Hardcover
The Reverse Centaur's Guide to Life After AI: How to Think about Artificial Intelligence--Before It's Too Late
Doctorow, Cory
Paperback
Improvised Munitions Black Book: Complete and Unabridged in One Volume: Complete and Unabridged in One Volume
U S Government
Paperback
The Agi Chronicles: The Inside Story of the Race to Create an Artificial Superintelligence
Roose, Kevin
Hardcover
AI for Good: How Real People Are Using Artificial Intelligence to Fix Things That Matter
Tyrangiel, Josh
Hardcover
The Story of Your Life: How Social Media Shapes the Way We Experience Everything
Jezer-Morton, Kathryn
Hardcover
The Infinity Machine: Demis Hassabis, Deepmind, and the Quest for Superintelligence
Mallaby, Sebastian
Hardcover
Ultimate Guide: Wiring, Updated 10th Edition: Meets Current National Electrical Code Standards
The Editors of Creative Homeowner
Paperback
You Don't Need a Smartphone: A Practical Guide to Downgrading Your Phone and Upgrading Your Life
Lamm, August
Paperback
Like, Follow, Subscribe: Influencer Kids and the Cost of a Childhood Online
Latifi, Fortesa
Hardcover
Lightning Beneath the Sea: The Race to Wire the World and the Dawn of the Information Age
Tabor, James M.
Hardcover
Basic Butchering of Livestock & Game: Beef, Veal, Pork, Lamb, Poultry, Rabbit, Venison
Mettler, John J.
Paperback
Empire of Ink: The Printers, Rogues, and Radicals Who Invented the American Newspaper
Wright, Alex
Hardcover
No One's Coming: The Rogue Heroes Our Government Turns to When There's Nowhere Else to Turn
Hazzard, Kevin
Hardcover
Midnight in Chernobyl: The Untold Story of the World's Greatest Nuclear Disaster
Higginbotham, Adam
Paperback
Kobuk the Destroyer: And Other Tales from the Wild, Unseen World of Test Engineering
Davies, Alex
Hardcover
The Home Blacksmith: Tools, Techniques, and 40 Practical Projects for the Home Blacksmith
Ridgway, Ryan
Paperback
City on the Edge: Technology, Politics, and the Fight for the Soul of San Francisco
Weber, Jonathan
Hardcover
The Problem with Plastic: How We Can Save Ourselves and Our Planet Before It's Too Late
Beyond Plastics
Enck, Judith
Mahoney, Adam
Hardcover
The Elements of Power: A Story of War, Technology, and the Dirtiest Supply Chain on Earth
Niarchos, Nicolas
Hardcover
Curved Air: A Biography of Sickle Cell Anemia and the Quest to Cure the First Molecular Disease
Davies, Kevin
Hardcover
Atlas of AI: Power, Politics, and the Planetary Costs of Artificial Intelligence
Crawford, Kate
Paperback
AI Snake Oil: What Artificial Intelligence Can Do, What It Can't, and How to Tell the Difference
Narayanan, Arvind
Kapoor, Sayash
Paperback
The Ultimate Guide to Rebuilding a Civilization: A Technical Manual for the Post-Collapse Era
Evans, James
Paperback
Generation Regeneration: Codesigning the Future of Cities Through Regenerative Placemaking
Cho, Tony
Hardcover
Crisis Engineering: Time-Tested Tools for Turning Chaos Into Clarity
Weaver, Matthew
Dickerson, Mikey
Nitze, Marina
Paperback
Artificial Intelligence: A Guide for Thinking Humans (with a New Preface)
Mitchell, Melanie
Paperback
Meat: How the Next Agricultural Revolution Will Transform Humanity's Favorite Food--And Our Future
Friedrich, Bruce
Hardcover
Human + Machine, Updated and Expanded: Reimagining Work in the Age of AI
Daugherty, Paul R.
Wilson, H. James
Hardcover
CompTIA Tech+ Certification All-in-One Exam Guide, Third Edition (Exam FC0-U71)
Wempen, Faithe
Paperback
The New Age of Sexism: How AI and Emerging Technologies Are Reinventing Misogyny
Bates, Laura
Hardcover
Inconspicuous Consumption: The Environmental Impact You Don't Know You Have
Schlossberg, Tatiana
Paperback
Pilot's Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge: Faa-H-8083-25c
Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)
Hardcover
Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water, Revised Edition
Reisner, Marc
Paperback
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope
Kamkwamba, William
Mealer, Bryan
Paperback
Make: Electronics: Learning by Discovery: A Hands-On Primer for the New Electronics Enthusiast
Platt, Charles
Paperback
The Trillion Dollar War Machine: How Runaway Military Spending Drives America Into Foreign Wars and Bankrupts Us at Home
Hartung, William D.
Freeman, Ben
Hardcover
CNC Woodworking for the Absolute Beginner: Winning Tips, Techniques & 5 Skill-Building Projects
Bagnall, Ralph
Paperback
Bringing Columbia Home: The Untold Story of a Lost Space Shuttle and Her Crew
Ward, Jonathan H.
Leinbach, Michael D.
Paperback
Tubes: A Journey to the Center of the Internet with a New Introduction by the Author
Blum, Andrew
Paperback
The Baofeng Radio Revolution: The Beginner Guerrilla's Guide to Break Through the Complexity, Secure Communications, and Prepare for Disaster With Pre
Code Publishing, Morse
Hardcover
Broken Money: Why Our Financial System is Failing Us and How We Can Make it Better
Alden, Lyn
Paperback
AI Projects with Raspberry Pi: High-Performance Artificial Intelligence for Robotics, Security, Home Automation, and Vision
Hattersley, Lucy
Jepson, Brian
Paperback
Bioinspired: How Nature Made Us Modern, Drives Today's Technological Innovation, and Inspires a Future Worth Inventing
Stier, Samuel Cord
Hardcover
Disneyland and the Rise of Automation: How Technology Created the Happiest Place on Earth
Betancourt, Roland
Hardcover
A Brief History of Cities in 32 Inventions: The Ideas and Technologies That Made Modernity Possible
Elledge, Jonn
Hardcover
The Coming Wave: Technology, Power, and the Twenty-First Century's Greatest Dilemma
Suleyman, Mustafa
Hardcover
Agentic Artificial Intelligence: Harnessing AI Agents to Reinvent Business, Work, and Life
Bornet
Wirtz, Jochen
Davenport, Thomas H.
Paperback
Drawing Lessons with Da Vinci: An Artist's Guide to Geometry, Anatomy and Proportion
Roig, Gabriel Martín
Paperback
AI Snake Oil: What Artificial Intelligence Can Do, What It Can't, and How to Tell the Difference
Kapoor, Sayash
Narayanan, Arvind
Hardcover
Texas DMV Driver's Handbook: Practice for the Texas Permit Test with 350+ Driving Questions and Answers
Prep, Discover
Paperback
The Powerful Primate: How Controlling Energy Enabled Us to Build Civilization
Ennos, Roland
Hardcover
How to Use an Oscilloscope 2026: Master Measurement Skills for Electronics Beginners and Pros
Grant, Nathaniel Cole
Paperback
Spec Ops: Case Studies in Special Operations Warfare: Theory and Practice
McRaven, William H.
Paperback
The Unaccountability Machine: Why Big Systems Make Terrible Decisions--And How the World Lost Its Mind
Davies, Dan
Paperback
Reinventing Wool: How a Natural Fiber Survived the Synthetic Revolution
Littlefield, Melissa M.
Hardcover
The Mercury 13: The True Story of Thirteen Women and the Dream of Space Flight
Ackmann, Martha
Paperback
Essential Off-Grid Survival Projects: 50 Life-Saving Solutions for Shelter, Water, Food, and Safety
Furneaux, Ky
Hardcover
Air Force Handbook 10-644 Survival Evasion Resistance Escape SERE Operations: 27 March 2017
The Air Force, Department of
Paperback
Agentic Artificial Intelligence: Harnessing AI Agents to Reinvent Business, Work, and Life
Davenport, Thomas H.
Bornet, Pascal
Wirtz, Jochen
Hardcover
Mobile Solar Power Made Easy!: Mobile 12 volt off grid solar system design and installation. RV's, Vans, Cars and boats! Do-it-yourself step by step i
Prowse, William Errol, IV
Paperback
Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time
Sobel, Dava
Paperback
Genesis: Artificial Intelligence, Hope, and the Human Spirit
Kissinger, Henry a.
Schmidt, Eric
Mundie, Craig
Paperback