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The SIDirect Communication Driver is a Microsoft® Windows® application program that acts as a communications protocol server to provide access to data within the Siemens SIMATIC S7-1500 PLC series.

The Communication Driver provides access to a Siemens SIMATIC S7-1500 PLC through an off-the-shelf standard Ethernet network interface card in the computer. Multiple network interface cards can be supported by the Communication Driver.

The SIDirect Communication Driver connects via Ethernet to the S7-1500 series PLC. It does not require any of the following items:

• Siemens PC adapter cards

• Siemens CP (Communications Processor) cards that reside in the PC

• Siemens SIMATIC NET library

The SIDirect Communication Driver contains two objects that can be configured to interface with the Siemens S7-1500 PLC:

• Legacy object – supports SIMATIC tag names.

• Symbolic object – supports symbolic tag names.

While the SIDirect Communication Driver can support other PLCs in Siemens S7 family of PLCs, it is specifically designed to support the S7-1500 . For the complete list of supported hardware and firmware, see "Tested Communication Driver hardware and firmware".