November 16, 2009 - The OPC Foundation Board of Directors voted earlier this month to add Express Interface (Xi) to the OPC Foundation technology portfolio, complementing OPC UA and COM-based OPC Classic technologies. OPC Xi is a new interface based on Microsoft .NET Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) technology. It is specifically designed for secure reliable access to real-time, historical and alarm and event based information.The OPC Xi interface is the result of collaboration among several OPC vendor companies from the process industry to develop an easily integrated and secure solution for a variety of plant communications.
OPC Xi was developed with the primary goal to provide a .NET-based migration path from OPC Classic. OPC Xi may also be used as a standard .NET WCF interface for newly developed OPC servers. “The OPC Foundation Board of Directors has adopted Express Interface (OPC Xi) as a standard OPC interface.
OPC Xi has been designed as a complementary interface that enables both .NET clients and existing COM-based OPC Classic clients to access OPC Classic servers at the same time. OPC Xi can also be used as a standard OPC interface for newly developed .NET servers,” says Thomas J. Burke, OPC Foundation President.
“The OPC Board of Directors has taken this action in response to feedback from members asking for a backwards compatible .NET interface for OPC Classic servers.”The OPC Foundation has begun a marketing campaign to introduce OPC Xi to the automation marketplace. In the next few months, OPC Xi products will be released, including toolkits, clients and servers.
About The OPC Foundation:
The OPC Foundation, dedicated to interoperability in automation and enterprise computing, is an independent, non-profit organization that comprises leading manufacturers and solution providers in factory and process automation as well as providers of enterprise solutions. The OPC Foundation's charter is to develop worldwide industry-standards for data transfer offering multi-vendor interoperability and seamless connectivity of measurement and automation devices, systems, networks, and enterprise computing solutions used in the manufacturing and process industries, by leveraging open computing technologies. Board members and Officers are unpaid volunteers. Development of specifications is undertaken by volunteers from 410+ members worldwide.