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. See the Phoenix Contact website for all current PLCnext Technology devices.

Latest update: February 10th, 2025

PLCnext Control product family

For the Axioline F controller family, there is a range of AXC F XT Extensions available, extending the features to suit your needs.

General features of PLCnext Technology

What's a controller worth without a sophisticated firmware? The general features come with all PLCnext Control devices but may vary in different releases of the PLCnext Runtime System. There are so many aspects to report, and so many changes made during the agile development – we're trying to give you an overview with all interesting details in the PLCnext Technology features.

Controller-specific features

The following features show the differences and similarities between the controllers, determining the performance and fields of application. For more details, see the related  Hardware documentation.

	AXC F 1152	AXC F 2152	AXC F 3152	RFC 4072S	RFC 4072R
Field of application	Perfect for small applications	Perfect for small to medium-sized applications	Perfect for medium-sized applications	High performance for safety applications	High performance for redundancy applications
Approvals (LTS firmware releases only!)	check on product page	check on product page	check on product page	check on product page	check on product page
CPU	Arm® Cortex®‑A9 800 MHz Single Core	Arm® Cortex®‑A9 800 MHz Dual Core	Intel Atom® x5‑E3930 1.3 GHz Dual Core	Intel® Core™ i5‑6300U 2.4 GHz Dual Core	Intel® Core™ i5‑6300U 2.4 GHz Dual Core
RAM	512 Mbyte	512 Mbyte	2048 Mbyte	4096 Mbyte	4096 Mbyte
Integrated flash memory [1]	512 Mbyte	512 Mbyte	1 Gbyte	8 Gbyte	8 Gbyte
SD card [1]	optional	optional	optional	mandatory	mandatory
Encrypted SD card [1]	✔	✔	✔	✔	–
IEC 61131‑3 Program memory	8 Mbyte	8 Mbyte	12 Mbyte	16 Mbyte	16 Mbyte
IEC 61131‑3 Data storage	12 Mbyte	12 Mbyte	32 Mbyte	32 Mbyte	32 Mbyte
Retain memory	48 kbyte (NVRAM)	48 kbyte (NVRAM)	1 Mbyte	2 Mbyte	2 Mbyte
Ethernet ports	LAN1/LAN2 (switched): 10/100 Mbps [2]	LAN1/LAN2 (switched): 10/100 Mbps [2]	3x 10/100/1000 Mbps	LAN1/LAN2:  10/100/1000 Mbps; LAN3.1/LAN3.2 (switched):  10/100 Mbps	LAN1/LAN2:  10/100/1000 Mbps; LAN3.1/LAN3.2 (switched):  10/100 Mbps
Trusted platform module (TPM)	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
Real-time clock	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
Configuration and diagnostics	via WBM	via WBM	via WBM	via touch display or WBM	via touch display or WBM
Task cycle time (ESM)	5 ms	1 ms	500 μs	500 μs	1 ms (recommended: ≥ 10 ms)
Real-time (ESM) cores	1	2	2	2	1
Control tasks running on an ESM core	8	up to 2020.3: 8 from 2020.6: 16	up to 2020.3: 8 from 2020.6: 16	up to 2020.3: 8 from 2020.6: 16	6 (max. 1 user task, 5 event tasks)
Maximum parallel tasks	8	up to 2020.3: 16 from 2020.6: 32	up to 2020.3: 16 from 2020.6: 32	up to 2020.3: 16 from 2020.6: 32	6
PROFINET update rate	up to 4 devices: 1 ms up to 16 devices: 4 ms	up to 4 devices: 1 ms up to 64 devices: 16 ms	up to 32 devices: 1 ms up to 128 devices: 4 ms	up to 64 devices: 1 ms up to 256 devices: 8 ms	up to 64 devices: 1 ms up to 256 devices: 8 ms
Support for AXC F XT left-side extension modules	–	✔ (see details)	✔ (see details)	–	–
Axioline F local bus support	✔	✔	✔	–	–
Inline local bus support	–	by means of AXC F IL ADAPT	by means of AXC F IL ADAPT	–	–
Safety controller (for use with PLCnext Engineer Functional Safety editor)	–	by means of AXC F XT SPLC 1000 or SPLC 3000	–	integrated Arm® Cortex®‑A8 600 MHz and Arm® Cortex®‑A6 800 MHz	–
Netload Limiter	from 2022.0 LTS: ✔	from 2022.0 LTS: ✔	from 2020.6: ✔	from 2019.9: ✔	✔
Active Fan Control	–	–	with AXC F 3 FAN MODULE (item no. 1173450)	with RFC FAN MODULE (item no. 2404085)	with RFC FAN MODULE (item no. 2404085)
Integrated uninterruptible power supply (UPS)	–	–	✔	✔	✔
System redundancy	–	–	–	–	✔
Applicative system redundancy	–	✔	✔	–	–

1. Depending on the firmware in use and/or PLCnext Store Apps and/or other components, not all of the integrated flash memory is available to the user. In case of memory shortage, we recommend using an additional Phoenix Contact SD card. 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.
2. Only one “standard gateway” is supported internally.

Firmware releases on controllers

The following updates of the PLCnext firmware are available (in brackets: latest public release or hotfix). To get to the product page for your device, use the link at the item no. in the table below.

Note: Here, for 2019 and 2020 releases only the LTS release is reported even though there might have been feature releases in between. That is, because the following LTS release contains all the modifications and additions of the former feature releases. Nevertheless, all releases are still publicly available in the Downloads section of the product pages on phoenixcontact.com.

For applications related to a certain approval, check the documents in the Approval facet of the regarding product page (see links at the first column in the table below). Hint: Only LTS firmware releases are approved.

 

 

• Published/reviewed: 2025-02-17  ☃  Revision 077 •