industrial//industrial data layer//IPC

An **Industrial PC**: a ruggedized computer, fanless, DIN-rail or panel mounted, rated for cabinet temperatures and vibration, that runs the software of the edge. It is the usual hardware of an edge gateway and of edge AI.

An Industrial PC: a ruggedized computer, fanless, DIN-rail or panel mounted, rated for cabinet temperatures and vibration, that runs the software of the edge. It is the usual hardware of an edge gateway and of edge AI.

A large plant distributes many of them rather than one giant central server: line 1 has its IPC, line 2 its own, line 3 its own. That is what "N IPCs" means in an architecture drawing, and it keeps a line's data path alive when another line's node is down.

Some vendors blur the line between IPC and controller: a soft PLC running on an IPC executes the same IEC 61131-3 program as a hardware PLC, with the same scan discipline (PLC).