ISA Expo: Demonstrations of competing device description platforms

If you have been trying to decide if and how you should be using a device description platform, the ISA Expo will give you an opportunity to see demonstrations of both the FDT and EDDL systems with their respective ISA standards.

Each platform has a booth at the show to perform demonstrations and discuss details of its standard. If you have already explored this technology, you will know that the two systems do many of the same things, but in different ways. There have been suggestions that there is no need to have competing platforms for something so basic, and the two organizations have formed a committee to explore convergence. ( Read an earlier and more detailed article on this topic .)

According to ISA’s event promotional materials, here’s what you’ll see:

“The ISA104 booth demonstrates the benefits of the ISA/ANSI Electronic Device Description Language (EDDL) standard for device integration driving new innovation. End-users involved in commissioning, operations and maintenance can see how EDDL-based control systems, software, and handheld communicators simplify calibration, advanced diagnostics and setup of simple and advanced device types communicating HART, Profibus, and Foundation fieldbus using powerful graphics and wizards. Look at context sensitive help, illustrations, and other know-how provided by the manufacturer. Unparalleled look & feel consistency of content provided by device manufacturer is demonstrated. See critical device diagnostics made available to operators on a need to know basis.

“The ISA103 booth highlights the end user benefits of IEC 65C/398/NP: Field Device Tool Interface Specification . FDT technology standardizes the communication interface between field devices and systems. The key feature is its independence from the communication protocol and the software environment of either the device or the host system. ISA103, in cooperation with the FDT Group, will showcase this valuable technology capability across three leading networks, HART, Profibus, and Foundation fieldbus. Focused on the end user and plant engineers, these live demonstrations will prove device/system interoperability, ease of setup, and configuration, innovative diagnostics and standardization to ISA103 in a totally vendor neutral environment.”

Come to the show, see the demonstrations, and you make the call.

—Peter Welander, process industries editor, PWelander@cfemedia.com , Control Engineering Process Instrumentation & Sensors Monthly Register here and scroll down to select your choice of free eNewsletters .

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