Strategic Partnership: congatec and CODESYS Revolutionize Virtualized Real-Time Control Platforms

congatec, a leading provider of embedded and edge computing technologies, and the CODESYS Group, market leader for hardware-independent control software, today announce the launch of a strategic collaboration. The partnership aims to develop highly integrated, virtualized real-time control platforms for mixed-critical workloads. Such multifunctional platforms with consolidated workloads open up new dimensions in flexibility and efficiency for industrial automation.

Efficient Virtualization for Demanding Automation
At the heart of this alliance is the combination of congatec’s proven aReady.VT virtualization technology with the CODESYS Control runtime system. The goal is to transform industrial controllers into full-fledged, software-based IEC 61131-3 PLCs for demanding automation tasks.

To achieve this, the conga-zones hypervisor partitions the embedded computing platform into dedicated areas. While general-purpose operating systems run in parallel, the real-time-capable control logic based on the CODESYS PLC is executed in isolation. This ensures deterministic real-time behavior and secure isolation on a single system—a critical requirement for the growing trend toward virtualization in industrial control technology.

"Our partnership with CODESYS combines congatec’s conga-zones hypervisor with the CODESYS PLC to offer our customers an easy-to-install, cost-effective solution that runs on standard hardware while ensuring robust real-time performance and secure isolation. Our hypervisor technology enables the seamless parallel operation of different operating systems together with the CODESYS PLC in industrial applications, creating a new level of flexibility, efficiency, and reliability for automation and robotics applications." — Konrad Garhammer, COO and CTO of congatec.

Pioneering the Future of Mechanical and Plant Engineering
The virtualization of control technology is considered a key lever for reducing costs, increasing scalability, and optimizing the security of embedded control platforms. What was already demonstrated as a promising concept at embedded world is now moving toward market maturity.

"The virtualization of control technology is a major trend for optimizing the costs, scalability, and security of embedded control platforms. Through our collaboration, we are enabling mechanical and plant engineers, as well as operators of such systems, to benefit directly from this trend. It is a win-win for both companies—but above all, for our joint customers." — Hilmar Panzer, CTO of the CODESYS Group.

With this cooperation, congatec and CODESYS are specifically addressing the market demand for high-performance, isolated, and flexible control solutions that fully meet the requirements of modern, data-driven Industry 4.0 environments.

Edited by Maria Brueva, Induportals editor – adapted by AI.

www.congatec.com