Year-end wrap-up stories provide closure. Prognosticators expound about what will be. Either direction can be fun...

Leading news stories of 2001: I'd pick Control Engineering readers' abilities over any set of clairvoyants, soothsayers, and fortune-tellers...e-mail me your predictions for the top news stories of 2001 in automation, instrumentation, and control. If you e-mail your predictions and permission, with your name, title, company, and city location, by Dec. 28, I'll summarize in Jan. 3, Control Engineering "Daily News," at www.controleng.com.

Leading news stories of 2000: Below are my picks for the most significant news stories, trends, and developments of 2000. There's more in the online version at www.controleng.com. As I'm writing this, 2000 has 40 days left, so check back to Control Engineering Online for updates.

Merger: General Electric says it will buy Honeywell for $45 billion (October 2000, Control Engineering Online News Archive), topping a $40 billion offer from United Technologies.

Mania: Other mergers include: 3M buys Dynapro (July) and MicroTouch Systems (November); Adept Technology buys Hexavision Technologies (July); Ametek buys Drexelbrook Engineering (March); Aspen Technology buys Icarus (September); Ci Technologies buys Springfield Electric (May); DeZurick buys Copes-Vulcan (October); eMation buys Intuitive Technology (June); Fluke buys Wavetek (January); GE Fanuc buys DataViews' assets (June); Infranor Inter AG buys Automotion Inc. (November); Intel buys Ziatech (August); Metso Corp.'s Neles Automation buys StoneL (July); Microsoft buys Visio (January); Moog buys Eaton Corp.'s Vickers Electrics (November); Nematron and Optimation Technology merge (July, November) and buy A-OK Controls (July); Parker buys Invensys' pneumatics business (September); Pavilion buys Computer Systems Engineering (July); Rockwell Automation buys Entek (March), Systems Modeling Corp. (May), and Sequencia's batch software (October); Schneider Electric acquires Quantronix (June), Crouzet and Positec (October), and Steeplechase (November); Siemens buys Moore Process Automation Solutions (January), TI buys Burr Brown (June), VenturCom buys Phar Lap (September); Yokogawa buys 3A International (November); and Wonderware buys SPSS' manufacturing software (May).

Microsoft —told it has to split to avoid anticompetitive practices—fights the ruling and still releases Windows 2000, expanding NT capabilities. It also launches Windows CE 3.0 (June) (as other real-time vendors step-up efforts); Windows NT embedded; and the .NET architecture, which extends DNA for Manufacturing into the Internet (August) using BizTalk, XML, and other tools.

E-manufacturing emphasizes the value of process/manufacturing information visibility and use through the enterprise and supply chain. Many expand e-commerce offerings and—customer service via the web.

Standards: IEC 61158 (January) expanded to include multiple fieldbuses; Dick Caro resigns from the fieldbus subcommittee (February). Use of Microsoft tools, OPC, S88, S95, wireless protocols, and Linux grows. Patents: Endress+Hauser and Fisher-Rosemount tussle over FOUNDATION fieldbus patents. Ethernet use gains momentum.

Significant product introductions will be covered in March 2001: Control Engineering editors pick top products of 2000.

Happy holidays and best wishes for a great New Year from Control Engineering .