May 2006
OPC UA Scores Big at Hannover Fair
Thomas J. Burke, president and executive director of the OPC Foundation, reports on
the OPC events held during the recent Hannover Fair in Germany. Demonstrations and forums solidify OPC UA’s
success as the key integration technology for legacy control devices and systems.
Welcome to the May 2006 edition of OPConnect, the official
newsletter of the OPC Foundation. Last month had many watershed moments for the new OPC Unified Architecture technology,
and I’m thrilled to provide a first-hand account of these successes.
One of the hot topics at the recent Hannover Fair, held the week of April 24 in Hannover, Germany, was the
OPC Foundation’s support for the Electronic Device Description Language (EDDL) effort. This collaborative
partnership of the Fieldbus Foundation (FF), Hart Communication Foundation (HCF), the Profibus Nutzerorganisation
(PNO) and OPC is defining the future of industrial communications.
Transparent backward compatibility
What’s important about this effort? One of the key issues facing end-users today is how to take legacy
equipment - devices, controllers, networks - and integrate them into their businesses’ enterprise and asset management
systems. In a Question & Answer session during an EDDL panel held on April 25 at Hannover Fair, representatives from
FF, Hart, Profibus and OPC addressed end-user concerns on how to achieve transparent backward compatibility.
Read more
|
