PAC Project 8.5 automation software suite

The PAC Project 8.5 is the latest version of the company's flagship automation software suite that includes control programming, HMI development, OPC connectivity, and database integration components. The company announced additions to its line of Ethernet-based components, specifically, intelligent SNAP I/O processors ("brains") and SNAP PAC standalone and rack-mounted programmable automation controllers with wireless LAN (Wi-Fi) capabilities referred to as Wired+Wireless hardware. PAC Project version 8.5 supports all of these new components, providing industrial wireless networking capabilities that offer several benefits to users, such as the ability to deploy the hardware in remote areas, areas that are inaccessible, or where network wiring is difficult or impossible to install. Control system designers can also use the new Wired+Wireless hardware to design and build systems with traditional Ethernet wiring, Wi-Fi, or any combination of the two, thereby establishing a level of networking flexibility that is currently impossible to achieve using the standard components of any other industrial automation vendor. Wireless networking capabilities also offer an opportunity for major savings through reductions in wiring costs. PAC Project 8.5's Wired+Wireless-related features include support for configuring wireless communications, such as assigning IP addresses to the wireless LAN interface, configuring secure WPA (TKIP) and WPA2 (802.11i/AES) encryption, and testing wireless signal strength.