São Paulo, Brazil— The fieldbus world can count on Brazil to vote in favor of the IEC 61158 standard again this year, and the vote will be in Geneva on time, according to Lucia Franco, chairwoman of Brazilian National Committee for Fieldbus. Ms. Franco says she regrets the controversy that arose last fall surrounding the difficulties her committee had communicating with IEC's Switzerland-based headquarters. The DLL (Data Link Layer) vote dispute arose Oct. 31, 1997. "Since the mechanisms specified by this layer define the performance of the data transmission, and consequently the performance of fieldbus, this layer was very important," says Ms. Franco. "For that reason, some committees have tried intentionally to defer it. Therefore, the Brazilian Committee's vote was, like others supporting DDL standards, especially significant." Finally, in February 1998, the IEC's Committee of Action voted to accept the Brazilian ballot. Following the Brazilian vote's disqualification, appeal, and reinstatement, the DLL standards were approved as Final Draft International Standard (FDIS), which is the ultimate stage prior to becoming an International Standard. Currently, only the physical layer is an international standard; the DLL and the Application Layer are in the FDIS stage and voting should be completed by the end of September 1998. "Now, it's critically important that each country use its vote to safeguard the rightful interests of the users who wish only one international standard," says Ms. Franco.