Industrial 3.0 targets the automated processes using logic processors and information technology. Industrial 4.0 targets the increased automation for production processes within the manufacturing industry, including smart factories, smart manufacture, and so on. The AM6x family of processors targets both these revolutions and then into the next Industrial 5.0 utilizing analytics variants of the family.

Automation in an industrial setting is crucial to ensure that every machine is operating and performing the task it is supposed to do. AM6x devices are able to be utilized as a controller through the high compute A72 cores and the wide array of connectivity peripherals. PCIe Gen3, USB3.0, and multiple ethernet ports are a critical requirement for a controller as this will interpret how many modules and sensors can be connected centrally to make a decision based on the input data.

Figure 4-2 illustrates the data flow for a PLC use case example on the AM68/AM69, which involves capturing data from an external sensor or module as an input, sending the data digitally to the powerful A72 cores in the SoC, make a pre-determined decision and then send an output command to the rest of the system which could be a pump, light or solenoid.

The broad family of AM6x processors are ideal for PLC’s in their own unique ways. AM68 can be a simpler PLC that requires just a few high-speed interfaces and 2x ARM A72 cores for higher compute performance. The AM69 is a maximum use case SoC that not only requires many high-speed interfaces with multiple PCIe ports or ethernet ports but also needs to use the 8x CPU cores in order to achieve maximum computability. Additionally, there are other devices in the TI processor family that can bridge the performance gap as a PLC such as DRA821U, DRA829J/V, AM62, AM64. Please refer to the respective product pages for more information.