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HELP - pushing Inferno as a solution

THE FOLLOWING IS EXCERPTED.......

>i challenge all of you; help us be successful.  write creative apps that
>we can point to.  push inferno as a solution in your companies.  i am
>always available to meet with potential business partners, call me on
>it.  if we are to publicize inferno and shout from the mountain that
>it is all we think it is, we need examples of people using inferno.
>this is my mission; i ask for your help.

>Sam Paone
>Inferno Business Development

You said "push inferno as a solution in your companies".  OK, let's get it
on.

Sam, I'm posting this to you, but hope others with specific input might
respond also.

My DAY (and night) job is with a very old and established company which
deploys automated systems, worldwide.  When the systems are installed, they
are typically integreted with the customer's present systems and various
computer hardware platforms.

The customer site where I work (basically, as an analyst and administrator)
involves over 8 miles of automated material handling machinery, a LARGE
number of Allen Bradley PLC controllers (supported by AB's PLC-5 software),
and various other system components which use 2 DEC 7720 VAX's as database
managers and some DEC workstations for system operation monitoring (performed
mostly by the customer).  AB has been spec'd by my company for many large
jobs.

I am relatively new in this position.  I AM NOT a systems engineer, and have
little or no access within my company to the people who could answer my
questions.  My habit of keeping one eye on the future trends has brought me
to watch this mail-list.  The Inferno list activity and my recent notice of
the many new imbedded system OS's out there have caused me to wonder ::

	>>> With all the new stuff out there, is my company specing the right
hardware and software?  Will we remain competitive with utilization of the
Allen Bradley stuff?  Should we give serious consideration to some of the
newer technology?  Could Inferno (and custom applications in Limbo) improve
our performance, or perhaps lower our cost to the customers?  Could Inferno
provide a better foundation for the necessary integration work?  Are the AB
controllers (and others in that market) so proprietary in design that nothing
else would work with them?  Would a new controller design be necessary.
 Could Inferno provide controller manufacturers an opportunity to reduce the
high cost of these devices?  Will AB respond to this with an offer for joint
venture with Lucent?  (OK, maybe I'm getting carried away with that last
one.) <<<
	
Granted the AB PLC5 controllers apparently utilize a high-speed I/O buse, and
that is VERY important to the sort of systems we deploy.  I do NOT even know
what kind of processors they utilize (perhaps Motorola 68-----??).  There is
so much NEW to explore, I just feel compelled to ask some experts for a
second opinion.  Perhaps this OLD guy just has an OLD fear of standing still
too long where technology is concerned.  When I ask my immediate supervisors
WHY we use Allen Bradley (almost exclusively) the response is the old, "well,
I think we always have".  NOT good enough !  If AB continues to be the
"smart" specification, fine.  Otherwise, perhaps I need to "wake up" some
people and ask them to CONSIDER other options.

So . . . Sam, and other ladies and gentlemen who may help::  Can anyone out
there give me a "comparative" overview regarding the present state of one of
the old "standard bearers" in programmable logic controllers (AB) AND what
"might" be done with the same (or different) hardware running on Inferno and
some custom apps?  GOD ... I hope someone can tell me there really is
something other than PLC5 "ladder logic" (wiring diagrams masquerading as
code)!!  My programming experience is far better suited to traditional
languages (or perhaps Limbo)!  But of course, we must maintain many sites
where there are no programmers on site.

THANKS

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clarkgr@juno.com
clarkgr@aol.com
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