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    Upgrade to Plant Resource Manager Released

    June 11, 2010
    Yokogawa Electric Corporation announces the release of the R3.05 upgrade to Plant Resource Manager (PRM®), an integrated device management software package that can be used to centrally manage, monitor, and diagnose plant field devices.

    With the R3.05 upgrade, PRM now supports PROFIBUS DP/PA and Wired HART 71 devices, has a new maintenance mark function, and can run under Windows Server® 2008. Through these and other enhancements, PRM can now be used to manage a much wider range of devices online and the efficiency of maintenance activities has been significantly enhanced.

    Development Background
    To strengthen competitiveness, manufacturers need to improve the efficiency of their existing production lines by introducing the latest technologies. They need standardized communication protocols that will allow them to construct optimum systems by freely selecting instruments from a variety of manufacturers. In response to this need, open protocols have been developed in various regions (Europe and the US) and industries. For these multivendor systems, users now need these enhancements to PRM to centrally control and monitor information from devices that are compatible with these standardized protocols.

    PRM already supports the FOUNDATIONTM fieldbus and HART protocols. With the added support of PROFIBUS DP/PA and Wired HART 7, the ability to manage and monitor a wide variety of plant field devices has been significantly enhanced.

    Product Features
    1. PROFIBUS DP/PA device support
    With its support of the PROFIBUS DP/PA protocol relied on by more than 1,200 device manufacturers worldwide, the scope of devices that can be managed and monitored online by PRM R3.05 has been significantly enhanced.

    2. Support for the Wired HART 7 standard
    The added support of the Wired HART 7 protocol means that PRM R3.05 can now be used to access, manage, and monitor information from a much wider range of HART devices.

    3. Maintenance mark function
    It is now possible to add a maintenance mark to the information that is provided for individual devices. Maintenance marks indicate the device maintenance status. When a maintenance worker sets a maintenance mark, operators in the central control room can check it at a glance. PRM maintenance marks can also be linked with the function block operation marks used by the CENTUM production control system so that both maintenance staff and operators can have access to this information.

    4. Windows Server 2008 support
    PRM R3.05 can now run under the 32-bit version of Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2, the latest in Microsoft’s line of server operating systems. This enhances the efficiency of device status monitoring and online diagnosis.

    5. CommunicationDTM and GatewayDTM support
    PRM R3.05 now supports CommunicationDTM and GatewayDTM, functions of FDT/DTM2, an open interface technology. PRM can now be used together with CommunicationDTM/GatewayDTM compatible communications equipment to set and adjust the parameters for PROFIBUS DP/PA devices.

    About Plant Resource Manager (PRM)
    A software package that centrally manages field device information. With PRM, users can monitor the status of these devices and perform online diagnosis via a network. In addition, PRM centrally manages database ledgers for individual devices as well as device maintenance information that can be accessed by maintenance staff.

    Main Target Markets and Applications
    Maintenance of field devices in process industries such as oil and natural gas, petrochemicals, chemicals, power, iron and steel, pulp and paper, water and wastewater treatment

    1 The latest version of the HART communication standard for control field networks, from the HART Communication Foundation

    2 An open technology for device management interfaces that is being promoted as an international standard by the FDT Group, a nonprofit organization. To set and adjust the parameters of various field devices and to perform self-diagnosis, an application program called Device Type Manager (DTM) is used. FDT is a technology which enables DTM to run on PCs, independent of the fieldbus communication standards (FOUNDATION fieldbus, HART, or PROFIBUS) and setting methods specified by each manufacturer. Each field device vendor offers FDT/DTM for its own products, hence management tools can make the best use of the functions of each device.

    Yokogawa Electric Corporation - www.yokogawa.com

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