Today's high-end machines place high demands on control systems. Fast response to state changes, fast control with high precision, short cycle times, and communication links to the production network have become required characteristics. The new CPU 319-3 PN/DP is the latest and most powerful of the SIMATIC S7-300 PLC family, meeting these requirements and delivering performance previously only available in large PLC's. This CPU offers:

• Unrivaled speed High-performance processing and communication allow for extremely short response and machine cycle times; even in case of more extensive and complex control programs, which are the key requirements for higher productivity.
• Large RAM With a RAM of 1.4 MB, the unit offers resources required for demanding and complex applications and supports the use of high-level languages.
• Reduced downtimes through detailed device diagnostics in all operating states as well as faster communication by direct data exchange between DPV1 standard slaves.
• Improved portability & reusability of SIMATIC programs between other CPUs in the SIMATIC S7 family together with cost reducing use of engineering tools like SCL, CFC, and S7-Graph thanks to the extended block number ranges.
• Vertical integration, component based automation (CBA) and field devices on the Ethernet with shorter response times in distributed structures.
• Flexible communication The unit is equipped with three integrated interfaces: PROFIBUS DP/MPI, PROFIBUS DP, and PROFINET which allow connectivity to the widest range of industrial devices. The PROFINET interface maintains up to 32 simultaneous active Industrial Ethernet connections to partner devices, and up to 256 field devices connections via PROFINET IO.

In addition to traditional messaging, both PROFINET and PROFIBUS DP allow real time I/O data to be sent deterministically, while linking the user program isochronously with the connected I/O devices. This real time network performance, coupled with the superior speed of the controller, allow the most demanding of applications to be addressed, including data-intensive tasks, high speed closed loop and control motion tasks with Easy Motion Control software. Like PROFINET, commercial technology is used for the integrated Web Server capability (available end of 2006) that allows diagnostic and process data to be easily accessible from any Internet browser. This instant access allows users to quickly connect to their control system anywhere in the world, using off the shelf browsers.