Since Beckhoff’s foundation in 1980, the development of innovative products and solutions on the basis of PC-based control technology has been the foundation of the company's continued success. We recognized many standards in automation technology that are taken for granted today at an early stage and successfully introduced to the market as innovations. Beckhoff’s philosophy of PC-based control as well as the invention of the Lightbus system and TwinCAT automation software are milestones in automation technology and have proven themselves as powerful alternatives to traditional control technology. EtherCAT, the real-time Ethernet solution, provides a powerful and future-oriented technology for a new generation of control concepts.