The world's first programmable controller was produced in 1969. It was developed by the American Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) for the American General Motors Company (GM) and successfully applied to the automobile production line. It is called programmable logic controller (Programmable Logic Controller), or PLC for short. In the 1970s, with the development of electronic and computer technology, microprocessors and microcomputers appeared and were used in PLCs, which provided functions such as logic control, calculation, data analysis, processing, and transmission. NEMA (National Electrical Manufacturers Association) officially named it Programmable Controller (PC) in 1980. In order to distinguish it from a personal computer (Personal Computer), its early name PLC is also used.

With the development of PLC, there are many brands, and different brands have different origins