PLCnext Technology in PLCnext Control devices

PLCnext Technology can be operated as a firmware platform on different controllers. In this topic you see the main features of all available PLCnext Control devices. For a sneak peek into our further development and current activities, please refer to the Development roadmaps.

Latest update: July 16th, 2021

PLCnext Control product family

General features of the PLCnext Runtime System

These features come with all PLCnext Control devices but may vary in different releases of the PLCnext Runtime. For more information on a specific feature, just click its icon which will pop up more details.

Firmware on controllers

These PLCnext Runtime versions are (or have been) available as firmware for controllers:

PLCnext Control	item no. / product info	2019.0 LTS	2020.0 LTS	2020.3	2020.6	2021.0 LTS	2021.6	2021.9
AXC F 1152	1151412	–	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
AXC F 2152	2404267	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
AXC F 3152	1069208	–	–	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
RFC 4072S	1051328	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	–

Controller-specific features

These features show the differences and similarities between the controllers, determining the performance and fields of application:

	AXC F 1152	AXC F 2152	AXC F 3152	RFC 4072S
Field of application	Ideal for small applications	Ideal for small to medium-sized applications	Ideal for medium-sized applications	High performance for sophisticated applications
CPU	ARM® Cortex®-A9 1x 800Mhz	ARM® Cortex®-A9 2x 800Mhz	Intel® Atom™ x5-E3930 1,3 GHz Dual Core	Intel® i5 6300U 2,4 GHz Dual Core
RAM	512 MB	512 MB	2048 MB	4096 MB
Integrated Flash memory*	512 MB	512 MB	1 GB	8 GB
Retain memory	48 kByte (NVRAM)	48 kByte (NVRAM)	1 MByte	2 MByte
Ethernet ports	2x 10/100 Mbit/s switched	2x 10/100 Mbit/s switched	3x 10/100/1000 Mbit/s	2x 10/100/1000 Mbit/s; 2x 10/100 Mbit/s switched
Trusted platform module (TPM)	✔	✔	✔	✔
Real-time clock	✔	✔	✔	✔
Configuration and diagnostics	via WBM	via WBM	via WBM	via touch display and WBM
Task cycle time (ESM)	5 ms	1 ms	500 μs	500 μs
Real-time (ESM) cores	1	2	2	2
Control tasks running on an ESM core	8	up to : 8 from : 16	up to : 8 from : 16	up to : 8 from : 16
Maximum parallel tasks	8	up to : 16 from : 32	up to : 16 from : 32	up to : 16 from : 32
PROFINET® update rate	4 devices (2 ms), 16 devices (4 ms)	4 devices (2 ms), 64 devices (16 ms)	32 devices (1 ms), 128 devices (4 ms)	64 devices (1ms), 256 devices (8ms)
Support for left-side extensions	–	✔	up to : AXC F XT IB only from : all AXC F XT modules	–
Axioline F local bus support	✔	✔	✔	–
Inline local bus support	by means of AXC F IL ADAPT	by means of AXC F IL ADAPT	by means of AXC F IL ADAPT	–
Safety controllers ( PLCnext Engineer Functional Safety editor necessary)	–	–	–	ARM® Cortex®-A8 1x 600 MHz, ARM® Cortex®-A6 1x 800 MHz
Netload limiter	–	–	from : ✔	from : ✔
Active Fan Control	–	–	with AXC F 3 FAN MODULE, item no. 1173450	with RFC FAN MODULE, item no. 2404085
Integrated uninterruptible power supply (UPS)	–	–	✔	✔

* Depending on the firmware in use and/or PLCnext Store Apps and/or other components, not all the memory is available to the user. 
In case of memory shortage, we recommend using an additional Phoenix Contact SD Card.Refer to the accessories of your specific PLCnext Control on the Phoenix Contact website.  Note: These SD Cards come with an underlying file system which is necessary for proper operation in PLCnext Technology. Do not use any other SD Cards available on the market, nor reformat a Phoenix Contact SD Card you want to use with your PLCnext Control further on.

Extensions to PLCnext Control devices

In this topic you see the main features of all available extensions and adapters to PLCnext Control devices. For a sneak peek into our further development and current activities, please refer to the Development roadmap.

For use at AXC F series devices

The following extension modules can be used with every Axioline-based PLCnext Control (e.g. AXC F 2152) with PCI express interface. 

For more technical details, see the data sheets.

Extension modules

AXC F XT ETH 1TX

Extend your PLCnext control with an additional high-performance 1 GbE network card, based on Intel® i210 chipset. This left-alignable extension module adds another independent MAC address to your AXC F station and supports PROFINET®.

Item no. 2403115

AXC F XT IB

Integrate new or older (meaning Supi 3 device chips or higher) INTERBUS networks with this left-alignable INTERBUS G4 Master extension module.

Item no. 2403018

AXC F IL ADAPT

The Inline adapter terminal (INTERBUS master) is designed to be aligned to the right of an Axiocontrol series PLCnext Control device (e.g. AXC F 2152). The Inline adapter terminal can be used to set up an Inline station for PLCnext Technology and to integrate INTERBUS devices.

Item no. 1020304

AXC F XT EXP

If you need more functions for your application than available with just one of the above AXC F extensions you can use the AXC F XT EXP module to align three extensions at the expansion module. 

Item no. 1139999

AXC F XT SPLC 1000

The AXC F XT SPLC 1000 is a safe PLC left-alignable extension module which communicates with up to 32 PROFIsafe® devices via PROFINET® or Axioline, while the integrated F-Device instance enables networking to a higher-level PROFIsafe® controller

Item no. 1159811

SD cards

Program and configuration memory for storing the application programs and other files in the file system of the PLC:

• SD FLASH 8GB PLCNEXT MEMORY (item no. 1061701)
• SD FLASH 2GB PLCNEXT MEMORY  (item no. 1043501)

Program and configuration memory for storing the application programs, other files and licenses:

• SD FLASH 8GB PLCNEXT MEMORY LIC (item no. 1151112) 
• SD FLASH 32GB PLCNEXT MEMORY LIC (item no. 1151111) 
• SD FLASH PLCNEXT MEMORY LIC CFG (item no. 1308064)

 

 • Published/reviewed: 2021-10-11 • Revision 026 •