Just curious as to whether this is widely known (and accurate) or not. I talked to our A-B salesman last week, and the conversation somehow turned to VersaView terminals. He said that we should make sure not to include those in any future designs because the product line is discontinued and will soon be unavailable. I pretty much disregarded it because we don't use them, but nonetheless I was surprised not to see any mention here about it. Is this common knowledge?

That's funny, because they just announced a new line of unit with a static hard drive...more reliable!

I will ask him tomorrow to clarify his statement. It doesn't make sense that there wouldn't be anything on the A-B website steering people away from that product if it were true, either.

we have just buy it a month ago for new project. How valid this issue..?

That sounds like misinformation to me. There might be certain models of heavy industrial PC that are going to change to a new style or go to end-of-life, but VersaView is definitely a current and future product line. The SSD drive versions for high-shock and vibration environments, and the new high-power 200R brick PC are the most exciting new products that I am selling.

checkout here for rockwell discontinued products

http://www.ab.com/silver/index.html

It was probably a misunderstanding on my part. I asked again, and he said it is the 6182 Windows CE terminals that are being phased out. 2711P takes its place. I found a brochure that goes into detail about this:

http://www.theautomationbookstore.com/idc/...td003_-en-p.pdf

Is this computer to be used with full blown HMI apps?

Two things going on here.

The really old 6182 computers with Windows CE, which ran RSView ME 2.0 and other CE applications, were obsolete a few years ago.

The newer "VersaView CE" terminals, aka 6182H, are cousins of the PanelView Plus that have an accessible Windows CE operating system and desktop. These will be renamed "PanelView Plus CE" and have 2711P part numbers.

I am reminded of a terrific Dilbert cartoon where he gets assigned to Marketing and is confronted with a banner sign reading "Marketing - 2 Drink Minimum"

Regarding Doug's question on the 200R computer:

The first-generation 200R's used Transmeta CPUs and were definitely more on the "compact and fanless" feature set rather than the "suitable for HMI or soft controller" side. Second-generation 200R's have Pentium M's and are peppy enough to run RSView ME or Microsoft Terminal Server Client (to access a RSView SE Client running on a MSTS server).

The current generation gets a Celeron M, optional solid-state drives, and more memory. I'm confident running RSView SE Clients on it, or SoftLogix 5800. I wouldn't try to use it for a FactoryTalk Server or Windows Domain Controller. It is popular bolted directly to the back of a light-industrial monitor to create a "giant PV+".