Wonderware 2012 & Applicom Card

We have a 2012 Wonderware system running on an older driver setup. ( 2 Servers with about 15 PLCs connected)

In each Server, we have an Applicom Card (PCI/PCU2000ETH) that is configured in the SMC console as an Archestra.DAS.Applicom and the topics are below this. This is linked to the profinet switch along with another ethernet cable from a standard NIC card.

The PLCs sitting below the servers Siemens S7 (300d & 400s) connected with profinet to the switch (ring network) .

1) Why have the Applicom Card when the PC already has an Ethernet port connected to the same switch.

2) Is there a better way to configure this, we are thinking of teamed networking.


Never really seen a dedicated card like this before, even when using version 9 of wonderware we just used the onboard NIC. (that was to a Rockwell PLC).

Hello. The Applicom PCI/PCU2000ETH is not a normal NIC. It is a computer with its own PCU and operating system, and through the PCI bus it communicates with the Applicom driver, which talks to the Archestra.DAS.Applicom, for communication to the HMS.
But to your question, I think there is a better way to configure this and reduce by one the number of cables from the PC to the switch. There is something called an NDIS or Network Driver Interface Specification, which the applicom board supports. You can configure the NDIS for the applicom and it will then look like a normal NIC, but you have to configure a different IP address than the IP settings in the Applicom console, and you will get on the same MAC for the Applicom card one IP address for the Archestra communication and another for things like the Siemens TIA software to configure the PLC or use PRONETA, etc.