Media Contact:
Alicia Bowers
GE Fanuc Automation
410-242-0300, alicia.bowers@gefanuc.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

GE Fanuc Wins Three Innovation Awards for PACSystems™
Family of Controllers from Leading Automation Publications

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. - January 19, 2004 - GE Fanuc Automation Americas, Inc., an affiliate of GE Infrastructure, has won three innovation awards for its PACSystems™ family of controllers from the well-respected industry trade publications Control Engineering, Instrumentation & Automation News (IAN), and Plant Engineering. GE Fanuc has received a Control Engineering Editors' Choice Award, an IAN Editorial Excellence Award and Plant Engineering Product of the Year Finalist Award - based on factors such as service to the industry, technological innovation and premier new products in the market.

"We are proud that these prestigious industry publications have recognized the extensive innovative capabilities of PACSystems providing overall productivity benefits to OEMs and end users," said Bill Estep, vice president of automation equipment for GE Fanuc Automation. "PACSystems represents a revolutionary change in the control industry, one that enables control convergence rather than integration of disparate parts. Continued releases to this popular family throughout the year anticipate and address users' sustained needs for flexible technology and superior performance."

Celebrating more than 50 years in print, IAN, www.ianmag.com, is a leading trade publication that reaches designers, specifiers and users of process and industrial controls, instrumentation, equipment, systems and manufacturing software. Control Engineering, www.controleng.com, has covered the $130 billion worldwide control, instrumentation and automation systems worldwide since 1980. Since its first issue in 1947, Plant Engineering, www.plantengineering.com, has stood as the leading problem-solving information source for America's industrial plant engineers. It has won virtually every readership study in its field over the past 20 years and well over 100 studies in all. 

Award-Winning Control

Introduced in 2003, the GE Fanuc PACSystems family features a single control engine and universal programming environment, which provides application portability across multiple PACSystems platforms to deliver a true convergence of control choices. The PACSystems family allows the combination of new technology with existing hardware systems, providing a seamless migration path for GE Fanuc customers. Protecting the user's investment in both I/O and applications development and enabling easy upgrades for improved control functionality were at the forefront of the PACSystems family design. This enables all control systems users to leverage as much of their installed automation investment as possible by combining it with this new technology. This core design approach seeks to bring every control user forward to new technology with a time- and cost-saving migration solution.

About GE Fanuc Automation

GE Fanuc Automation, a joint venture between GE and FANUC LTD of Japan, delivers automation hardware and software designed to help users reduce costs, increase efficiency and enhance profitability. With solutions and services catering to virtually every industrial segment, GE Fanuc Automation provides a diverse array of capabilities and products, including controllers, embedded systems, advanced software, motion control, CNCs, operator interfaces, industrial computers, and lasers. Headquartered in Charlottesville, VA, GE Fanuc Automation is a part of GE Infrastructure and combines the diverse global strengths of the GE family with the local presence customers need to design, develop and maintain their automation investments.

For more information, visit www.gefanuc.com or contact: GE Fanuc Information Center, P.O. Box 8106, Charlottesville, VA 22906, Phone: (800) GE FANUC, Fax: 434-978-5205, e-mail: gefanuc@gefanuc.com.

  

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PACSystems is a trademark of GE Fanuc Automation Americas, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. 

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