64-bit Computing

Control Engineering Europe - November/December 2007
by Michael Babb, Editor

Last year about this time many of us were reading reviews about Microsoft’s new Vista operating system, which was finally released to the public at the end of January, 2007.

Many of the early reviewers were clearly not excited. The software was two years overdue, they said, and it consumed much more PC resources than Windows XP. Several major innovations, such as a new file system, were dropped because they were taking too much time to develop. There were some positive comments about the new visual style, called Windows Aero, but was this enough to go out and buy the new software? You’d probably need a new PC to run it, anyway.

As we see now, Vista is really a technology-based release, with many improvements related to how the system functions and therefore more visible to software developers instead of end-users. For example, one of Microsoft’s primary objectives was to improve the state of security in the operating system, and it appears to have achieved this very well.

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‘Certified for Windows Vista™’
Vista Certification is no simple task. Previous Windows software packages will run on Vista, but to take advantage of the new system’s graphics and security features, a great deal of the code has to be re-written.

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Stunning graphics
But for those who do make the investment, the results can be visually dazzling. We attended ICONICS’ launch of GENESIS64 at the ISA Show in Houston in October and got a taste of what a full-fledged 64-bit operating system can do. You’ve seen the special effects that high-end machines from Silicon Graphics can produce for the movies - now you have that kind of computing power on your desktop.

ICONICS founder Russ Agrusa took us on a tour of a simulated oil platform in the North Sea. From several hundred metres away, we could zoom onto the platform, operate its cranes, watch oil being pumped into storage tanks, open and close valves, and even dive into the ocean to go down to the floor and troubleshoot a well head. As Mr. Agrusa twisted and turned the platform in different directions, there was not the slightest hesitation of the image. He zoomed in close enough on the compressor to read its nameplate. Then he went inside to observe its inner workings. Another mouse click brought up the maintenance manual for the compressor. There is almost no end to what detail this software can show - we have some snapshots on the side panel. Have a look.

ICONICS GENESIS64

This simulated oil platform has a supply ship docked at its side and is unloading the supplies. All the cranes move and can be operated by the user. The compressor is the tin green image at the centre left edge of the platform.

Zooming onto the deck, we get a closer view of the compressor.

Details of the compressor are now easily seen and the zooming can go on, showing close up views of any part of the machine. Complete maintenance manuals are available with a mouse click.

ICONICS Background Information

Founded in 1986, ICONICS is a leader in the development of Web-enabled industrial automation and manufacturing intelligence software for Microsoft® Windows® operating systems. Offering the industry's only suite of fully-integrated OPC-based components and products, GENESIS32™ Enterprise Edition is available for Windows XP, XP Professional x64, Windows 2000, Microsoft Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2003 x64. Pocket GENESIS™ for Windows CE and Pocket PC was built from the ground up based on ICONICS' OPC-To-The-Core™ framework. BizViz™ is a suite of manufacturing and business intelligence products, which bridge the gap between manufacturing and corporate business information systems. BizViz is designed around Microsoft .NET technology and Microsoft SharePoint Services. ICONICS also offers a complete set of Plug and Play automation components, including best-in-class OPC ActiveX® Controls, OPC Toolkit, Human Machine Interface (HMI), Microsoft SQL Server®-based data logging, Multimedia Alarming, and Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) products. ICONICS is a Microsoft Gold Certified partner represented in over 60 countries, and has more than 225,000 product installations worldwide.

© 2009 ICONICS, Inc. All rights reserved. Specifications are subject to change without notice. GENESIS64, GENESIS32, Pocket GENESIS, BizViz and their respective modules, OPC-To-The-Core, and Visualize Your Enterprise are trademarks of ICONICS Inc. Other product and company names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.