The steamroller toward integrated device standards is rolling on. The latest to climb on the back of the steamroller is Honeywell. The goal is full device interoperability regardless of vendor. Let's hear it for everybody on the team.
From their press release:
HONEYWELL PROMOTES UNIFIED STANDARDS BY JOINING
FIELD DEVICE INTEGRATION COOPERATION
FDI Specification Can Help Lower Total Cost of Ownership of
Digital Field Devices
PHOENIX, Feb. 23, 2010 – Honeywell (NYSE: HON) today announced it has joined the EDDL Cooperation Team (ECT) and will support efforts to develop a single, unified standard for integrating field devices with industrial facility control systems. The company is among a group of process automation technology developers that have agreed to support Field Device Integration (FDI) specification packages in their systems and products and will provide resources to help complete the standard.
Finalization of the FDI specification is planned for 2010. The ECT will be responsible for developing common design and test tools, common binary format and an interpreter across the HART, FOUNDATION Fieldbus and PROFIBUS protocols.
“Increased interoperability continues to be a key demand of process manufacturers, and the FDI specification will be a major step forward in helping them design integrated process control solutions that improve overall plant safety, reliability, efficiency and sustainability,” said Scott Hillman, director of marketing, Honeywell Process Solutions. “Honeywell supports this effort because it can reduce the overall cost of ownership of digital field devices for our customers and improve the effectiveness of advanced diagnostics that will help move the industry forward.”
