Acontis presents its Alasis real-time hypervisor running multiple deterministic Linux controllers and a Windows HMI on a single Advantech UNO-148 edge IPC, consolidating motion control, virtual PLC logic and supervisory functions for EtherCAT-based machines and robots in one compact DIN-rail system https://www.acontis.com/
The discussion dives into how the Debian-based hypervisor hosts several Yocto real-time Linux guests alongside Windows, each with dedicated access to fieldbuses and I/O while sharing the same 11th Gen Intel Core platform inside the UNO-148 edge controller, removing the need for separate PLC and SCADA PCs in industrial cabinets.
Acontis walks through the real-time behaviour of these Linux guests, showing a 1 kHz EtherCAT control loop with only around 8 µs jitter on top of a 1 ms cycle, something you cannot reliably achieve with a general-purpose Windows scheduler; even if Windows reboots or crashes, up to five hardened PREEMPT_RT Linux instances keep the motion and I/O control loops deterministic and isolated from non-real-time workloads.
On top of the hypervisor, the demo highlights the EC-Master EtherCAT master stack running in user space on real-time Linux and driving multiple EtherCAT subdevices, while a virtual PLC based on CODESYS executes IEC 61131-3 logic on another guest, illustrating how the same IPC can host low-level motion in C/C++ and higher-level PLC programs across x86 and ARM targets using the same toolchain and APIs.
The conversation also touches on how EC-Master and the acontis real-time hypervisor portfolio are used by OEMs across robotics, semiconductor manufacturing, medical devices and aerospace machines, leveraging EtherCAT and virtual controllers to meet strict latency requirements while still benefiting from Windows-based UX, diagnostics and data logging on the same hardware.
Filmed at the Advantech booth during SPS 2025 in Nuremberg, this video captures a concrete example of converging PLC, motion control and HMI workloads into a single industrial edge platform, simplifying cabinet design while keeping deterministic EtherCAT performance at the core of the architecture.
