"Industrial control is not really where DOS and PCs shine. Industrial control mostly uses real-time operating systems, and generally dedicated computer systems, such as microcontrollers and single-board computers. Most of them also do not use desktop CPUs, but things like the C51. Ordinary PC architecture is not suited to the requirements of industrial environments. Especially in electromagnetic environments with serious interference, for example brush motors and relays in workshops can all generate severe interference."
I want to make two points:
1. Today's PCs are no longer what they used to be. Haven't you heard that in the old days you had to turn on the monitor first, then the main unit; turn off the main unit first, then the monitor? And that you couldn't unplug the printer cable while it was working? Try that now and see whether there's any problem.
2. When I graduated (ten years ago), microcontrollers were not used that much. The main things used were single-board computers and PCs (not personal computers; it should probably be translated as programmable controllers). The reason was simple: at that time PC power supplies could withstand instantaneous voltages of several thousand volts. The power supplies in today's industrial control computers should probably be able to meet that kind of requirement too. Technology is always advancing, and ordinary personal computers are the same.
Of course, I'm not talking about using personal computers in the harshest electromagnetic environments with the worst interference, or under especially abnormal voltage conditions. What I mean is: industry also has heavy and light cases. Some industrial control environments are even better than the office environment you and I are in right now. So it's not necessarily true that an industrial computer must use PC104. Sometimes you still have to look at the requirements and the price.
