The Siemens Industry Automation Division has expanded its offer for the development of PC-based automation solutions for series machine manufacturing with a Profinet driver for controller applications. With the driver, which is delivered as source code, it is easy for the user to implement individual Profinet communication solutions on a standard PC, for networking machines in a production line, for example. No special hardware is required for this communication solution since the driver utilizes the conventional Ethernet interface to be found on standard PCs. The Profinet driver is also suitable for standard operating systems and is configured via an open XML interface. Engineering tools such as the TIA Portal (Totally Integrated Automation) can provide support for the user here. The new driver supports Profinet with real time (RT) and achieves cycle times of as little as 1 ms when using a real-time operating system.