In an age of cloud connectivity and IoT, companies across the process industries are becoming more receptive to different control, computing, and data management approaches. These include using industrial PCs (IPCs) for process automation and edge computing applications in process facilities. Due to their origins in the information technology (IT) world, personal computers have always been more open and interoperable than operational technology (OT)-based distributed control systems (DCSs). The downside, of course, is that ordinary PCs lacked the high levels of availability, determinism, and security required for mission-critical industrial applications. Modern IPCs address these and other valid concerns by combining the best characteristics of both the IT and OT worlds. Today’s IPCs can provide a cost-effective, flexible, and relatively easy-to-implement solution for an expanded range of applications in both greenfield and brownfield process operations. In this paper we address some frequently asked questions related to implementing IPCs for both automation and edge computing in industrial process facilities.

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