OPC spec opens way to possible Web-based HMIs

The OPC XML Data Access (XML DA) specification is part of a move towards platform-independent interoperability and generic support for Internet-based Web services, an ARC Advisory Group Industry News item reports. Internet-based HMI is just one possibility opened up by OPC XML DA. Others include Web-enabled field devices and enterprise-wide management systems.

The new spec provides a gateway to the Internet for OPC data and OPC information to be transferred to and from any OPC-enabled device. A ”wrapper” is being provided as an easy migration path for the estimated 3000+ OPC DA products in use today.

Says ARC Senior Analyst Dick Slansky, ”This OPC XML DA spec ushers in a new era of interoperability for all industrial verticals across their entire enterprises…[It] provides an extremely significant step toward making Web Services for manufacturing a reality.”

For more on the subject, visit the ARC website and the OPC Foundation .

—Jeanine Katzel, Senior Editor, Control Engineering, jkatzel@reedbusiness.com

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