Cooperation Team Continues Advancement of EDDL Standards
Austin, TX, USA; Karlsruhe, Germany (February 22, 2006)
The ECT announces the release of Phase 1 EDDL (Electronic Device Description Language) enhancements specifications. Phase 1 defines fully upward compatible enhancements on the existing EDDL including new capabilities such as graphs, charts and images, the possibilities for archive data and an EDD guideline for user interfaces. The results of the Phase 1 enhancements will be supported by major system suppliers such as Emerson, Honeywell, Invensys, and Siemens. Others will follow.
The Phase 1 EDDL enhancements have been formatted and forwarded to the IEC for updating of the existing standard. The national committees have voted by 100% in favor of the new IEC specification (IEC 61804-3). It will be published as international standard.
The ECT has expanded its activities in common integration of field equipment by a forming maintenance / compliance working group as well as an enhancement team.
With the successfully completed Phase 1, the main goals of the enhancement team for Phase 2 are EDDL(TM)-based OPC UA servers and protocol- independent device and diagnostic information for enterprise applications, and the establishment of common requirements for harmonizing EDDL compliance test requirements.
The goal is to further improve customer and software manufacturer benefits such as reduced effort to customize HMI, MES unified device representation OPC UA Servers provided with a common data structure described with EDDL generic user interfaces with OPC UA EDDL common requirements for EDDL compliance tests.
Detailed information will be available during the forthcoming Interkama and Achema Shows in Germany.
Hans Georg Kumpfmueller, Chairman of the ECT Steering Committee and Director Board Member of the HART Communication Foundation, stated: "With Phase 2 EDDL we will reach state-of-the-art enterprise applications. Taking that important step together with all manufacturers of control systems forms the best basis for the success of this project".
"Our goal moving forward is to protect the investment that has been made by our manufacturing members and our automation users," said Rich Timoney, President of the Fieldbus Foundation. Timoney added, "We can only do that by communicating with the end users, understanding their needs and requirements and agreeing amongst ourselves on a single approach and common solution."
When asked about the uniqueness of this committee, Tom Burke, President of the OPC Foundation responded, "The areas of common ground are often overlooked when you look at each technology independently. All four organizations are committed to standards-based technology. We all have a significant installed base of users that require backward compatibility for the technologies that we provide. We serve a broad base of members utilizing various operating systems and must therefore provide a technology that is operating-system independent and, finally, we are all committed to interoperability. EDD provides excellent vertical interoperability and adding OPC UA will insure that the enterprise layer will have rich horizontal interoperability in a standard-based open environment which is platform- independent".
Ron Helson, Executive Director of the HART Communication Foundation added, "The Phase 1 EDDL enhancements developed by the cooperation team establish a new standard for integrating the advanced capabilities of modern intelligent devices with control, safety and asset management systems.
The immense benefits of this new standard will become evident as device manufacturers, system suppliers and users fully embrace and support the EDDL technology around the globe".
Edgar Kuester, President of PNO added, "Last year the committee created a maintenance team to support the EDD technology and insure that the common specifications are properly maintained going forward. We also formed a working group to develop a common set of EDD test requirements so that users can be assured of consistency in the technology implementation across all protocols. To insure completeness and meet end user requirements, the German technical consultancy IFAK has joined the compliance team and will provide input to the requirements and act as specification editor."
About ECT (EDDL(TM) Cooperation Team):
In 2003, the three leading field device foundations (Fieldbus Foundation, HART Communication Foundation and Profibus Nutzer Organisation - PNO) signed an unprecedented cooperative agreement to develop a common specification for graphical visualization and persistent data storage enabled by Electronic Device Description Language. All three of the organizations utilize EDDs for parameterization and description of their devices. In 2004, OPC joined the cooperation team. With EDDL(TM), an established IEC standard, it made sense for the OPC specification to base their data structure on that same standard and work with the organizations to develop a standard interface to the Unified Architecture. The four organizations signed an agreement in 2004 to cooperate in the development of that interface. The Steering Committee is comprised of the presidents of each foundation plus one representative from each organization's membership. The organizations will rotate the chairmanship of the committee from year to year. For the current year, the HART Communication Foundation member representative, Hans Georg Kumpfmueller, is chairman of the committee.
This is a joint press release by:
Fieldbus Foundation; Profibus Nutzer Organisation; HART Communication Foundation, and OPC Foundation.
For further information please contact:
ECT (EDDL Cooperation Team)
Dr. Sigrun Ebert-Heffels
Phone +49 (721) 595 56 76
Fax +49 (721) 595 46 88
Mailto: press@eddlcoopteam.org
