Architecture of Programmable Logic Controllers A PLC system basically consists of following units 1. Arightmetic Logic Unit 2.

Input and output system 3. Memory 4. CPU and Interrogation power supply 5. Wiring An 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Arithemetic Logic Unit consists of following parts (or functions) Decoding circuit Timing circuit Registers Interrupt handling Memory management Communication

For the digital electronics part in ALU, input and output modules, memory and ot her modules, CPU power supply is extended through common bus in the mother board or plug connectors. In addition to CPU power supply, Input and Output modules need interrogation sup ply for the purpose of field devices. The main communication between various modules (cards) and the CPU is through ad dress,data and control bus which exist in any microprocessor based system. This is called Parallel Microprocessor Bus or PMB in short form. Mother boards carry this PMB. In some PLC systems, back side plug connectors will do the same job as that of mother boards. Mother board and all the modules are housed in a cage li ke structure called CHASIS or RACK. The figure below shows the interconnection of ALU, Input, output and memory syst em with power supply. Extension rack system: Sometimes it is not possible to accomodate all the module in a single rack (or m other board). In such cases, extension racks (one or more) are used. The main ra ck where CPU is installed, is called the CPU rack or MAIN rack. PMB is extended through a cable between main rack and the extension rack. The extension rack wil l not contain any CPU (in most of the cases). It does have power supply for digi tal electronics required for the modules in that particular rack. For input and output modules additional interrogation supply will be wired. The picture below shows a PLC system with extension rack facility with PMB cable. Input,output and field connectivity: Sensing the input from the site and releasing the signal to operate an equipment is one of the important apect of PLC. This is achieved through field wiring. Th is field wiring makes any PLC system unique in its nature. Any PLC input and output module will have two plug connectors. The bottom connec tor (available in the card) is usualy meant for PMB. The second connector is loc ated normally at the top either back side or front side. This connector is used for field wiring. The signal are carried to a terminal block (TB) for distributi on using a cable. This cable is called Input_output cable. The module side of th e cable is a connector and the other side is free to terminate in TBs. Field sig nals (wiring) are then connected to this TBs and extended to site. Before reachi ng the input and output devices, wiring is terminated in the site at TBs again. Following figure shows the connection diagram of the field wiring from PLC