Contact Us

Prices

Products

FAQ

Advantages

Home

Frequently asked Questions - PC vs. dedicated controller

Is a PC really capable of running a CNC router?

Many large machines use a dedicated control computer (typically a Fanuc one) to control the machines' motion. These leagacy drives use a dedicated microcontroller for the drive.

A modern PC actually is actually many times faster than these microcontrollers and because it is mass produced is far more cheaper. A modern PC today running in the GHz speeds that can had for as little as a few hundred dollars would almost be classed as a supercomputer twenty years ago. The CPU (Central Processing Unit) of a PC is now an ultra sophisticated chip with parallel threading technologies that make them faster than rival RISC(Reduced Instruction Set Chips) and DSP (Digital Signal Processors).

The PC you are reading this web pag on really is the fastest and cheapest technology out there no matter what you have heard.

The next time a machine seller mentions any of these buzzwords don't be intimidated. Just  ask them how many Ghz (gigaherz) their controller CPU is. Chances are the speed of the dedicated processor in the controller is measured in Mhz (Megaherz) which is a scale that is 1,000 times slower than Ghz!

You may also already own a perfectly good older PC that can be applied to running the machine.

A PC has the added advantage that the files used to drive the machine are already on the same computer used to create them. No need to transfer them to the motion control computer becasue they are already there. Or if two computers are used, a high end one for programming and another more cost effective one for running the machine, they can connected via high speed networks rather than a slow serial interface common to dedicated controllers.

Also, most dedicated motion control architectures won't allow third party programs to be installed. The intrinsic open architecture of the PC is the feature which has allowed it to dominate business computing and no doubt will allow it to prevail in industrial computing in the years ahead.

Simplify, Clarify, Economize - click to return