Fieldbus Foundation announces enhancements to technical specifications
August 2014
News
The Fieldbus Foundation has announced the latest updates to its open, non-proprietary Foundation fieldbus technical specifications. The specification updates (Version 2014.1) will further enhance Foundation for Remote Operations Management (ROM) and the usability of Foundation technology.
The Foundation for ROM specification updates, along with an update to the Common File Format (CFF) specification, have improved coverage of ROM communication profiles under existing specifications in preparation for the first official ROM device registrations. Additionally, there is expanded specifications support for complex, mixed conventional I/O points.
The first development of its kind, Foundation for ROM integrates remote I/O, ISA 100.11a, WirelessHART, wired HART, and Foundation fieldbus H1 protocols into a single, open-standard data management environment. With Modbus incorporation under development, Foundation for ROM allows full integration of field connected assets into the fieldbus infrastructure. These enhancements further extend the capabilities to wired and wireless devices installed in some of the world’s harshest and most remote locations. This open, non-proprietary solution provides a unified digital infrastructure for asset management in applications ranging from tank farms and terminals to pipelines, offshore platforms, and even OEM skids.
As part of this new technical specifications release, a fixed set of Device Description (DD) Symbol IDs was added to technical note 16 in order to improve interoperability between backwards-compatible devices and host systems. This provides a more reliable way for a host to properly take advantage of the backwards compatibility of a device. In 2013, the foundation created a continuous improvement process initiative with the ultimate goal of making the end users’ experience with Foundation technology easier than with conventional analogue control systems. Since then, the Usability Initiative has resulted in four immediate objectives toward this common goal: backwards compatibility, pre-defined device templates, automated device replacement and process value (PV) interchange ability. Backwards compatibility simplifies device replacement.
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