This strategic alliance is set to combine congatec’s proven aReady.VT virtualization technology with the CODESYS Control runtime system. The goal is to transform industrial controllers into fully-fledged IEC 61131-3 PLCs for essential automation tasks, purely through software. To achieve this, the hypervisor conga-zones from congatec separates the embedded computing platform into different zones. General purpose operating systems run in parallel with CODESYS PLC-based real-time control in dedicated zones, ensuring both deterministic real-time behavior and secure isolation on one system. The combination of the conga-zones hypervisor and CODESYS PLC delivers the reliability, virtualization flexibility and deterministic performance that are crucial as the industry moves towards control technology virtualization.

"Our partnership with CODESYS unites congatec’s conga-zones hypervisor and the CODESYS PLC, bringing customers an easy-to-install, cost-effective solution that runs on standard hardware while ensuring robust real-time performance and isolation," says Konrad Garhammer, COO and CTO at congatec. "Our hypervisor technology enables the seamless operation of various operating systems alongside the CODESYS PLC in industrial applications, providing a new level of flexibility, efficiency and reliability for automation and robotics."

Hilmar Panzer, CTO of the CODESYS Group, adds: "Virtualization of control technology is an important trend for optimizing the cost, scalability and security of embedded control platforms. At Embedded World, we presented a demo using congatec’s conga-zones hypervisor to showcase this concept, which we are now set to bring to realization. With our cooperation, we will enable machine and plant builders, as well as their customers who operate such systems, to directly benefit from this trend. This will create a win-win-win situation for both our companies – but above all for our shared customers."