Industrial Engineer · phase 4 of 16 · noun
Word / INT / DINT
Integer data types or registers commonly represented with 16 or 32 bits.
The Explain card
- Plain English
- A word is sixteen bits, an INT is a sixteen bit signed integer, and a DINT is a thirty two bit one. They hold counts, raw analog values, positions and anything else that is a whole number.
- Example
- An analog input card returns an INT between 0 and 32767. A DINT holds an encoder count that would overflow a sixteen bit value in a few seconds.
- Why it matters
- Pick a type too small and the value wraps around to negative with no fault, which looks like the machine went backwards. Most modern controllers prefer DINT internally, and mixing sizes costs conversions and confusion.
- Hook
- Sixteen bits was enough once.
Word knowledge
How the word is built, where it came from, and what it sits beside in memory.
In a sentence
The PLC compares the conveyor encoder count stored in a Word with the stopping setpoint in the ladder program.
How it is built
- word root a spoken or written unit of language
Where it came from
- Origin
- Old English word, from Proto-Germanic *wurdan
- Entered the language
- 9th century
- What changed
- The language term broadened to commands and information, then computing adopted it for a machine-sized unit and industrial control systems applied it to data storage.
How it is spelled
- Pattern
- The initial wor- has the same r-colored vowel pattern found in work and world.
- Pattern
- The regular plural adds -s to form words.
- Breaks the pattern
- The letter o is pronounced differently from its usual short sound because the preceding w historically influenced the vowel.
Spelled like
- work
- world
- worm
Broken into chunks
-
word
- wording
- keyword
- worded
Where it sits in the deck
Phase 4: PLC Memory, Tags, and Instructions
The data a program moves and the instructions that move it, from a single true or false value up to a structured array.
