Nivis releases ISA100.11a compatibility kit-- before standard exists...

June 13, 2008
Although the "draft ballot" appears to have barely squeaked by, with 23 approve votes, 10 no votes, at least two votes not counted for unaccountable reasons, and over 1400 technical and procedural comments, which in any other standards body would have meant an automatic rejection, the ISA100 juggernaut appears to be moving forward... From a news blurb:  An "industry first" has been unveiled by Nivis, a pioneer and leader in large-scale industrial wireless sensor and control networks. The b...
Although the "draft ballot" appears to have barely squeaked by, with 23 approve votes, 10 no votes, at least two votes not counted for unaccountable reasons, and over 1400 technical and procedural comments, which in any other standards body would have meant an automatic rejection, the ISA100 juggernaut appears to be moving forward... From a news blurb:  An "industry first" has been unveiled by Nivis, a pioneer and leader in large-scale industrial wireless sensor and control networks. The breakthrough technology was demonstrated by Nivis at the Sensors Expo & Conference held June 9–11, 2008, outside Chicago. Technically known as the NISA100.11a Evaluation Kit, it is unique in the industry. "Only Nivis has engineered and created an evaluation kit that allows users to assess a full ISA100.11a pre-compliant system." ISA100.11a is a standardization effort of the Instrument and System Automation organization targeted at industrial applications. "Nivis has the only ISA100.11a–based working system, as well as a suite of evaluation tools that allow assessment of an ISA100.11a pre-compliant network," explains Keith Sciulli, Nivis Executive Director of Business Development. "If a company aims for ISA100.11a compatibility, then this is the answer." Nivis has developed a pre-release ISA100.11a system based on the ISA100.11a preliminary draft published by ISA on December 21, 2007. After exhibiting the pre-release system during an ISA100 wireless conference in China in April, Nivis recognized high demand for an evaluation kit that would allow various wireless users, OEMs, and integrators to assess the Nivis implementation of the ISA100.11a standard. The evaluation kit is built on the NISA100.11a stack. "Nivis was able to rapidly and accurately implement the standard and be the first to the marketplace."   Users' devices can be quickly integrated into the Nivis NISA100.11a system, which enables communication tailored according to the demands of the ISA100.11a standardization effort. The NISA100.11a Evaluation Kit is a user-friendly assessment tool that allows users to swiftly build an ISA-compatible network. System parameters can be easily monitored and configured thanks to a graphic user interface that displays data received from acquisition channels, as well as the status of field-device control channels. Nivis' Evaluation Kit was officially launched at the Sensors Expo & Conference. Nivis demonstrated how the NISA100.11a wireless network ties together devices from different vendors in a data acquisition and control ecosystem. Honeywell, Cisco, General Electric, and Endress+Hauser instruments are already an integral part of the Nivis initiative. The Nivis stacks are currently available for Texas Instruments and Freescale hardware platforms, and Atmel and Jennic transceivers will be integrated into the Nivis solution shortly. "We have validated a wireless system that is adroit, scalable, and extensible. It provides the necessary capabilities to accomplish the goals and tenets set forward by the ISA100 standardization effort," Nivis' top technical lead on ISA100.11a architecture, Robert Assimiti, affirms.