【Weekly Question 200906022】Why do many DCS manufacturers use controllers with low clock frequencies?

Speed is not everything; stability is what matters most. It’s meaningless to focus solely on the clock speed; the bus speed must keep up as well.

The hardware requirements should be determined based on the actual operating conditions; a lower CPU frequency is more than sufficient, so there’s no need for a higher one. It’s cheaper and more energy-efficient…………

This post was last edited by Yunzhong Gong on 2009-6-22 21:40. Electronic products are generally divided into commercial, civilian, and military versions; for the same model, there can be a significant difference in price. This is mainly because commercial and military versions offer much better stability and heat resistance compared to civilian versions. Of course, achieving such high standards is not easy, so in order to maintain these excellent properties, they have to sacrifice speed compared to civilian products (it’s the same with everything else – you can’t have it all, haha). So, consumer-grade devices operate at frequencies of several GHz, while industrial-grade devices operate at frequencies in the range of a few hundred MHz. Industrial-grade devices can operate continuously for hundreds of days without any problems, whereas consumer-grade devices start to have issues after just a few days of continuous operation. If you don’t believe me, try keeping your computer running continuously for a few days and see how its performance holds up^_^ A couple of years ago, I heard about a case where someone bought an used wireless router from an factory online; its performance was definitely fine. However, experts warned that such devices have high power levels and emit significant radiation, so they may not be suitable for home use. Everyone out there should also be careful. Most of our computers use the von Neumann architecture, that is, a stored-program design or a sequential processing approach; when the amount of computation is large enough, it inevitably affects the processing speed ； Another structure is the Harvard architecture, also known as the parallel architecture; it seems to be used only in laboratories, as I haven’t heard of it being adopted on a wider scale. Does China have controllers of its own development? It seems there are only three manufacturers of CPUs: Intel, AMD, and VIA from Taiwan. There’s no news either about the domestic Loongson processors these days. Of course, there are other manufacturers that also produce processors, such as Motorola, Siemens, Nokia, Siemens, and so on. They generally manufacture handheld electronic devices, though they are also used in industrial applications; it depends on how one classifies them. Siemens’ PLCs are also very excellent. For domestic manufacturers that produce DCS systems, the chips are imported; at most they only manufacture the circuit boards and add some additional functions.

Firstly, low-frequency CPUs generate less heat, which is important for industrial control CPUs that need to operate continuously for long periods of time. Secondly, it helps save energy. Another advantage is its high stability and the maturity of the product. Personal opinion! ! !