Field Device Technology Groups Shake Hands

May 9, 2007

The EDDL Cooperation Team (ECT) and the FDT Group (www.fdt-jig.org) announced April 17 at the Hannover Fair, in Hannover, Germany, that they have reached agreement to combine efforts and work toward a unified solution for device integration that is compatible with both technologies. This would satisfy one of the most frequent customer requests, say the groups. EDDL, or Electronic Device Description Language, and FDT, or Field Device Tool, are two methods used for field device representation in asset management and other software applications.

As part of this agreement, the FDT Group will join the ECT as its newest member. FDT and ECT representatives have agreed to work together to finalize this solution and achieve a common framework that meets the requirements of all parties. Future developments will use a subset of the OPC UA technology within a client-server architecture. OPC is an open communication standard, and OPC UA (for Unified Architecture) takes advantage of the latest Web programming standards. In addition, both parties have agreed to incorporate the advantages of FDT and EDDL technologies.

In related news, the SP104 EDDL standards committee of the Instrumentation, Systems and Automation Society (ISA, www.isa.org) has launched a Web site, www.eddl.org, that provides information about the standard and offers resources for learning more about EDDL technology.