Laura Patrick sends us this release:
ABB and Phoenix Contact to collaborate on PROFINET development
Will bring benefits realized in discrete industries to process customers
ABB and Phoenix Contact recently signed an agreement for a long-term strategic cooperation to further develop and promote PROFINET- and Ethernet-Technology. This collaborative effort will help develop PROFINET as a global industrial standard across the complementary manufacturing areas of process and discrete automation. Already widely implemented in discrete manufacturing, PROFINET provides a flexible and cost-effective way to integrate intelligent devices as well as multiple fieldbuses; Phoenix Contact and ABB will work together to enhance PROFINET for use in the process industries. As part of this agreement, Phoenix Contact-subsidiary KW-Software will take responsibility for the technical integration of the PROFINET-Technology. "This frame agreement is an important milestone for ABB. This collaboration with Phoenix Contact will help us to expand and enhance PROFINET for implementation in the process industries," said Peter Wendt, chief R&D officer Control Products of ABB Automation GmbH. "This will help current and future customers integrate intelligent field devices more quickly, easily and inexpensively." The PROFINET Industrial Ethernet standard for automation includes plant-wide fieldbus communication, plant-to-office communication, and equipment-to-equipment integration. PROFINET can simultaneously handle standard TCP/IP transmissions and real-time transmissions at sub-millisecond speeds. PROFINET embraces industry standards like Ethernet, TCP/IP, XML, and OPC. Using proxy technology it connects other fieldbuses in addition to PROFIBUS; thus protecting the existing investment in plant equipment and networks. PROFINET is more than a fieldbus; it provides a means of integrating disparate control equipment without programming. Currently more than 100 engineers from at least 50 different companies are working in 20 distinct Working Groups to advance PROFINET. 
