MatrikonOPC™ is pleased to announce a multi vendor demonstration of OPC UA connectivity at the MatrikonOPC User Group in Houston, Texas on April 16^th, 2009.

This demonstration will showcase OPC UA and recently released UA components. Part of the demonstration will show how legacy-based products fit right into OPC UA based technology through the OPC generic wrapper and/or services offered by MatrikonOPC. OPC vendors will be working together to demonstrate the interoperability of OPC UA.

“MatrikonOPC is proud to be hosting the live demonstration of OPC UA. We have been working with the OPC Foundation and its members to develop and endorse emerging standards like OPC UA. As the world’s Connectivity Expert, we pledge to continue delivering superior connectivity solutions as well as adhering to up-and-coming standards,” Sean Leonard, VP of MatrikonOPC, says.

The MatrikonOPC User Group (OPCUG) will bring together industry leaders and users of all levels to explore common questions, hot topics and new developments. The OPCUG allows attendees to meet with the industry’s most forward-thinking professionals, take advantage of a wide array of technical presentations, case studies, expert panels and product showcases - all at no cost.

OPC vendors interested in participating in the demonstration should contact Rod Stein at rod.stein@matrikonopc.com

MatrikonOPC™ is proud to announce the release of a new test tool for OPC HDA.  HDA Explorer is a free stand-alone tool for verifying historical data through HDA, testing HDA OPC Servers, and troubleshooting connectivity to HDA OPC Servers.

“In the past, the only way our customers could view and test HDA data was to use full blown analysis tools.  This utility enables our customers to test and troubleshoot their historical data much faster and easier than before.  HDA Explorer can be installed and viewing HDA data within minutes,” said Sean Leonard, VP OPC products at Matrikon.

According to Craig Resnick, Research Director, ARC Advisory Group, “Manufacturers must leverage their historical data as an important tool for achieving operational excellence.  This historical data is used to trend operations, compare performance to benchmark standards, and through correlation, identify leading key performance indicators for productivity, maintenance, environmental and safety events.  OPC tools such as MatrikonOPC’s HDA Explorer provide manufacturers who have utilized standards such as OPC HDA with a no-cost solution for extracting this historical data out of their HDA servers without the need to purchase costly analysis tools, providing them with the information needed to manage their operations and increase their productivity and profitability.”

Features and Benefits:

• Browse OPC HDA Server tags
• Read all values in “raw” format
• Perform processed or aggregate reads, like
• Read OPC HDA Attributes
• Read OPC items from a specified time
• Insert simulated data into your HDA Server
• Delete data from your HDA Server (time range)

Download it now!

http://www.matrikonopc.com/products/opc-desktop-tools/opc-hda-explorer.aspx  

Note: If you require a test client for OPC DA, you need the regular version of OPC Explorer.  It is available here: http://www.matrikonopc.com/products/opc-desktop-tools/opc-explorer.aspx

About MatrikonOPC (a division of Matrikon Inc. [TSX:MTK])

With a collection of more than 500 OPC products and over 100,000 installations worldwide, MatrikonOPC is the world’s largest OPC company. Matrikon™ is a charter member of the OPC Foundation, and has demonstrated a commitment to developing OPC as the industrial connectivity standard.

A wide range of global companies rely on MatrikonOPC products for their connectivity in industries such as: discrete manufacturing, process control, building automation, alternative energy production, commercial and military applications. With clients and installs throughout North America, Australia, Europe and the Middle East, the reach of MatrikonOPC Connectivity is truly global.

For more information www.MatrikonOPC.com.

More…

OPC Clients add value to your business when they can get at the OPC data they need. If they are unable to communicate with the OPC Server they have been configured against then they will not be able to do their job, even if there were one or more alternate OPC Servers that could have been used to provide a communication path to the required OPC data.

More… 

• Connect to an OPC Server.
• Tunnel to a remote DataHub computer.
• Log data to a database.
• Do other common tasks.

DataHub Videos …

More information 

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We know that OPC-UA is supposed to standardize and simplify connectivity among all sorts of software applications from embedded software at the field-device level all the way up to ERP systems running on mainframes. We also know that past OPC standards have been helpful to some, confusing to others and, overall, a significant advancement for our industry.

But even after listening to the presentations, reading the literature and consulting trusted industry experts it’s hard to tell if OPC-UA will live up to its promise.

OPC-UA is complex and it is built on myriad other not-so-familiar IT technologies. “OPC-UA is a service-oriented architecture (SOA) that will facilitate integration of both simple and complex information models from applications and devices,” says Thomas Burke, the OPC Foundation president and executive director.

Burke said a mouthful there, and all of the explanations of OPC-UA that I have seen, heard or read assume the audience has an in-depth understanding of SOA. I don’t, I have not been able to find anyone who can explain it to me in terms I can understand, and I won’t attempt to regurgitate incomprehensible explanations here.

The best that I can do is to draw an analogy with Internet server/browser technology. Ten years ago, I had no idea what this technology was all about and no one could explain it to me in clear terms. Now that I have used browsers and written pages for a web server, my understanding is adequate, and I know that the technology is here to stay.

I think the same thing will happen with SOA in general and with OPC-UA in particular because I see many similarities between them and Internet server/browser technology. All the big names in the industry are on board with SOA and OPC UA, and no one company is seen as the creator, owner or chief proponent of them. That has made Internet server/browser technology a winner, and I think the same will be true for SOA and OPC-UA.

Another reason to think that SOA and OPC-UA will be winners is that, much like Internet server/browser technology. neither is based on any particular hardware platform or operating system. “Existing OPC standards were designed to address interoperability inside the corporate firewall and were very tied to the Microsoft platform for many good reasons. OPC-UA is designed for platform independence. This allows users to integrate devices and applications whether they exist on a Microsoft or a non-Microsoft platform.  OPC-UA essentially builds on existing OPC standards but extends the functionality to facilitate deployment on embedded devices as well as enterprise platforms,” says Burke.

A third reason to believe in OPC-UA is OPC Foundation standardization and testing. “OPC-UA seeks to ensure interoperability and reliability in several ways. First, the OPC Foundation is writing the code that is intended to be the underlying framework that all UA software is based on. Second, the application programming interface will be exhaustively tested before it is released. Finally, the updated OPC certification program will recognize vendors that test their software for interoperability and compliance,” explains Nathan Pocock, chief software architect at Software Toolbox.

How is OPC UA different from other OPC standards? “OPC-UA is designed to integrate all existing OPC standards. In the past, OPC Clients had to implement specific OPC interfaces to allow interoperability with data access, alarm & events, and historical data access servers. Each of these existing standards addressed a specific problem, but didn’t interoperate or even consider the existence of the other OPC standards. UA changes the game and fixes this problem because the UA framework will allow seamless integration between components,” continues Pocock.

We think OPC-UA will be a winner, but it won’t be easy to learn or implement. “As with any new technology, end users will face an implementation learning curve,” says Eric Murphy, an advanced architecture system design engineer with MatrikonOPC. “OPC-UA leverages service based architectures which may be more familiar to IT professional than to process control engineers.”

Via controlglobal.com