History
Opto 22 was founded in 1974 as a manufacturer of solid state relays. The company soon expanded its offerings to include a variety of computer-based industrial automation, remote monitoring, and data acquisition products. In 1978, Opto 22 developed the first computer-based plug-in I/O modules, and created the now universally accepted Yellow-Black-White-Red color scheme used to identify digital AC input, digital AC output, digital DC input, and digital DC output modules respectively.
In 1982, the company created Optomux, a serial-based I/O system using the ASCII protocol that remains popular to this day. The following year, with the introduction of the personal computer prompting a shift in the automation industry to PC-based control, Opto 22 developed what was to be the first in a series of software packages for designing control strategies on a PC using flowcharts. This provided a new alternative to the more popular ladder logic programming model. Later, Opto 22 introduced the mistic controller, which had many of the same features and functionality of a modern programmable automation controller.
Today, Opto 22 is best known for its "SNAP" brand of Ethernet I/O products, including industrial processors, controllers, I/O racks and modules, software and accessories. In 2007 the company introduced the SNAP PAC System, unifying the aforementioned elements into a fully integrated platform, adding higher powered programmable automation controllers with redundant Ethernet communications, new programming and HMI development software, higher density I/O modules, database connectivity tools and software that simulated the SNAP PAC controller hardware. The result was a suite of control system components, suitable for simple cell control or complex, distributed control architectures.
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