Wouldn't it be great if you could buy automation components as needed, wire them, and they would work together without a lot of adjustments or additional programming? That day is still in the offing. But when it arrives it might look like the Snap Pac system from Opto22, Temecula, Calif., (www.opto22.com). The system includes Snap Pac brains, high performance, Ethernet I/O processors that include distributed control functions, multiple protocol support, and two switched Ethernet network interfaces. Five new I/O modules from the line include channel-to-channel isolation. The increased density of each of these modules reduces per-point costs and panel space. New racks consolidate the number of Snap rack choices from fifteen to four. The racks let designers mix analog, digital, serial, and special-purpose modules on the same rack in any position. This flexibility, combined with the rack's universal applicability to all Snap I/O, rack-based controllers, and the new brains, makes it simpler to configure an I/O system and reduces the number of on-hand spares that might otherwise be required.