Suppliers Unified for Field Device Integration
November 16, 2009;

Scottsdale, AZ November 16, 2009 - To accelerate deployment of the Field Device Integration (FDI) technology, Key Suppliers agreed to enlarge the scope of the EDDL Cooperation Team and will become the FDI Cooperation. This cooperation will initially consist of the associations: FDT Group, Fieldbus Foundation, HART Communications Foundation, OPC Foundation and PROFIBUS Nutzerorganisation, as well as the companies ABB, Emerson, Endress+Hauser, Honeywell, Invensys, Siemens, and Yokogawa.

The FDI project was kicked-off at 2007 Hanover Fair. At this time ECT welcomed FDT Group with the primary objective of harmonizing EDDL and FDT/DTM technologies. Since then, the project has carefully shaped the technology direction for the converged FDI solution.

The addition of supplier companies, which have agreed to support FDI packages in their systems and products, will strengthen this effort by providing resources for the completion of this project.

Besides the finalization of the FDI specification, which is scheduled for mid 2010, the scope of the enlarged EDDL Cooperation Team is covering common design and test tools, common binary format and interpreter across the protocols of HART, FF and PROFIBUS.

The intent is to assure a uniform device integration solution for process industries across all host systems, devices and protocols as required by end users.
The OPC Foundation highly endorses the inclusion of vendor companies participating in this important FDI cooperation team, as these companies will be the driving force in assuring successful adoption of the specifications and technology that are being developed to facilitate the objectives of uniform device integration.

The technology of OPC Unified Architecture is the infrastructure that facilitates device to host integration providing a service-oriented architecture for multivendor multiplatform secure reliable interoperability

About The OPC Foundation:

The OPC Foundation, dedicated to interoperability in automation and enterprise computing, is an independent, non-profit organization that comprises leading manufacturers and solution providers in factory and process automation as well as providers of enterprise solutions. The OPC Foundation's charter is to develop worldwide industry-standards for data transfer offering multi-vendor interoperability and seamless connectivity of measurement and automation devices, systems, networks, and enterprise computing solutions used in the manufacturing and process industries, by leveraging open computing technologies. Board members and Officers are unpaid volunteers. Development of specifications is undertaken by volunteers from 410+ members worldwide. For more information about the OPC Foundation visit http://www.opcfoundation.org .
For more information contact:

Thomas Burke
OPC Foundation
16101 N. 82nd Street, Ste 3B
Scottsdale, AZ 85260
480-483-6644
thomas.burke@opcfoundation.org

For OPC Foundation membership contact membership@opcfoundation.org

Back