FDT Group updates FDT standard
Write:
Alvita [2011-05-20]
The FDT Group AISBL released the draft of its new FDT 2.0 standard to start its membership review process. This major update transitions the FDT standard to a full .NET development environment and provides significant performance enhancements for large installations and adds a wealth of new features requested by the manufacturer and end user communities. While the capabilities of the standard have been greatly enhanced, the number of interfaces has been reduced by nearly 50 percent to make it easier to develop and maintain FDT based applications.
Our technical development team has done an outstanding job of catapulting the standard forward while ensuring backward compatibility to the installed base, states Glenn Schulz, Managing Director of the FDT Group. The FDT standard has earned the reputation of being the standard that brings other automation standards to a common, interoperable platform for the benefit of the end user. This tradition will grow with the ability to use the upcoming FDI device package within FDT as a configuration method for process industry devices, continues Schulz.
Tightly coupled to the new FDT 2.0 standard is a richly integrated development environment (IDE) called FDT Express. When we set out to update the FDT standard, we committed to fully author the standard within the development environment. This allows us to release FDT Express coincident with the release of the standard, notes Ted Takeuchi, VP of Technology for the FDT Group. FDT Express significantly reduces the development time of FDT applications while ensuring compliance to the standard, concludes Takeuchi. FDT Express will be made available without charge to all members of the FDT Group.
