Programmable Logic Controllers (PLC), Distributed Control Systems (DCS), SCADA (Smart Transmitters, and General-purpose Data Acquisition), and Process Automation Systems (PAS) are all industrial process control systems used in the majority of industrial manufacturing. Their purpose is to use various types of sensors and feedback mechanisms to monitor and control machine or system interactions by collecting, storing and analyzing data. Industrial control system technology has evolved over the past three to four decades. The lines of capability over the years have blurred with many systems now offering similar capabilities. The naming convention is often more representative of the vendor’s origin than the actual differences in systems. However, there are some general high-level trends that can be used to differentiate. Common to all of these systems is the need for acquiring data from sensors, processing it, and delivering an output to a control device. This involves precision measurement and processing of analog variables, such as voltage and current, where there is a need to often sense very small changes.