In 1986, the MasterPiece 200/1 was introduced, with more processing power: The controller CPU was changed for a more powerful, and the RAM was increased to 4 Mbyte.
The CPU featured redundancy, with a switchover of 10ms, along with a fast 10 Mbit Ethernet communication over ABBs MasterBus 300, including full redundancy routing with a time sync down to 1 ms. This allowed fast cross communication and event based updating of data to the operator.
Paired with the new CPU, the S400 remote I/O was launched, featuring twisted pair or optical fibre communication. The S400 also included several fast pulse counters as well as cards for weighing functions. A freely programmable communications card offered alternatives to the standard Modbus
From an aesthetic point of view, the aluminum covers on the boards where changed to plastic, with nice laser engraved type id´s, to give the controller a more modern look.
All in all, the MasterPiece 200/1 has been a very successful ABB DCS system, used by customers for more than 20 years - still more than 3000 MasterPiece 200/1 controllers are still up and running!
MasterPiece 200/1 life cycle status
The MasterPiece 200/1 hardware was moved in 2001 to the Limited life cycle phase and to Obsolete in 2008, with ABB committed to deliver spares parts and parts services until the end of 2015.
ABB strongly recommends customers to evolve the Masterpiece 200/1 controller CPU, memory and communications to Advant Controller 450, while the S100 I/O can be kept untouched. As both MasterPiece 200/1 and Advant Controller 410/450 uses the same programming language, AMPL, the application conversion process is easy and takes just a few hours.
On the communications side, we also recommended to replace the MasterBus 300 thick coax cable to fibre optic cabling and standard ethernet switches.