New S7-300 standard CPUs with significantly higher performance
October 2002
PLCs, DCSs & Controllers
Siemens Automation and Drives (A&D) has upgraded its range of Simatic S7-300 programmable controllers with a series of new standard CPUs. There are three new devices - CPU 312, CPU 314 and CPU 315-2 DP - all very compactly designed and each with a different level of performance. Their processing speeds are as much as three times faster than those of their predecessors. Floating-point instructions can now be executed 15 times faster than before. This permits even higher machine speeds, shorter throughput times and thus greater productivity. At only 40 mm, the new CPUs are only half as wide as the previous S7-300 CPUs.
These new Siemens products can be used in any sector and their typical applications include the series and special construction of processing and production machines - for example in the automotive, packaging and food and drinks industries.
In the most powerful version, the CPU 315-2 DP, a maximum of 1024 digital or 256 analog channels can be connected centrally. In addition, the CPU 315-2 DP can be used as a master to control up to 125 Profibus-DP slaves, or it may be used as a slave itself. For communication with other controllers, operator panels or programmers, the new CPUs have an MPI interface.
The new Simatic micro memory cards (MMC) with up to 8 MB each are used as nonvolatile memory. These enable a complete project to be backed up on the CPU and also - as a new function - the reading and writing of data, eg, measured values or recipes.
The new CPUs are programmed either with Step 7 or Step 7 Lite. To reduce the expense of configuration, task-oriented engineering tools can also be used - for example, graphical drafting languages or technology-oriented runtime software such as Easy Motion Control.
For more information contact Siemens Automation & Drives, 011 652 2137.
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