Upgrading an Aging Rockwell-Based Control System with Minimal Downtime Challenge: NXP Semiconductor, a leader in developing innovative high-performance mixed- signal solutions, was facing several issues with an aging control system for its ultra-pure water (UPW) plant in Chandler, AZ. The aging Allen-Bradley PLC-5 control systems were state of the art when installed in the late 1990s, but most of the components are now discontinued or deemed “active mature. ” Two of the ?ve PLC-5 controllers were completely out of memory, preventing any process improvement. The network infrastructure used multiple proprietary, old network technologies, and was slow and non-redundant. In addition to the technical challenges, downtime in the semiconductor industry is extremely costly. NXP operations required

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