Two groups formalize FDT cooperation
FDT Group and PACTware Consortium formalized their long-time collaboration with a cooperation agreement, announced in Hannover, Germany, on April 24. The organizations expressed interest in "clear communication of their relationship and a uniform marketing strategy of the FDT technology."
FDT Group and PACTware Consortium formalized their long-time collaboration with a cooperation agreement, announced in Hannover, Germany, on April 24. The organizations expressed interest in “clear communication of their relationship and a uniform marketing strategy of the FDT technology.” Field device tool (FDT) technology aims to standardize the communication interface between field devices and systems with “independence from the communication protocol and the software environment of either the device or the host system,” allowing any device to be accessed from any host through any protocol, says FDT Group.
Within the agreement, FDT Group grants PACTware Consortium the nomination of one representative for election to the FDT Group board of directors and one representative as vice president in the executive committee. FDT Group also grants PACTware Consortium one voting delegate per project group to each of the FDT Group’s Marketing, Technical, and Association & Standards Committees. PACTware Consortium grants FDT Group a voting delegate to the Marketing Working Group to coordinate marketing activities of both organizations. The partners believe that this strategic cooperation is in the “best interest of the automation industry and will accelerate the use of open FDT Technology.”
FDT Group says its mission is to establish, promote, and maintain open FDT technology for the benefit of end-users as well as device and control system manufacturers. Its objective is to create an international standard that enables end-users to configure, manage, and integrate any field device from any device manufacturer connected to any control system or asset management tool independent of any fieldbus protocol. PACTware Consortium jointly develops software solutions based on FDT Technology. This allows users to operate field devices of manufacturers with Software PACTware, said to be a simple solution for device configuration that provides a path from basic applications to complex asset management.
—Mark T. Hoske, Control Engineering editor in chief,
MHoske@cfemedia.com
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