Is there a difference between DCS and PLC nowadays

The answer to this type of question is hypothetical now, as technology develops PLC and DCS both designed to undergo the task that they can’t be able to perform before those years.

The DCS full form is said to be a distributed control system that can handle several processes at a time but plc can handle only one process. Now plc can also communicate with other plc so it can perform the same duty.

Plc has less I/0 compared to DCS before, but now plc modules can also be extended with the help of the communication module.

Both the system now comes with a redundancy controller, power system, module, etc. So the reliability of the process is maintained.

Before plc used low-level language like ladder logic for programming, DCS used high-level languages like a functional block, which has a predefined function used for creating a program. However, Now plc also has this ability.

 

Plc can handle a large amount of digital signal as it has less scan time compare to DCS. Furthermore, plc can’t control more analog signal as Dcs does. This difference still exists.

 In addition, the DCS system comes with an inbuilt supervisory control and data acquisition system shortly called a SCADA. However, in plc still, we need a separate source for monitoring.

Conclusion

Both the system can perform a control effectively, so here we can’t be able to declare a winner both have cons and pros. It depends according to the industry who will prefer one over another. Furthermore, Dcs is not discovered to replace plc, it has been used together to achieve productivity. Share your comments below.