Articles and News

M&M Software elevated its membership status to that of sponsoring member of the FDT Group.

By Bill Lydon, Editor The FieldComm Group was formed and became operational on January 1, 2015, by combining all assets of the former Fieldbus Foundation and the HART Communication Foundation. The new group will further intelligent device technologies and their adoption. Ted Masters, President and CEO provided insights into the value of the new organization.

Team8 launches with a USD $18 million A-round investment from Alcatel-Lucent, Cisco Investments, Marker LLC, Bessemer Venture Partners, and Innovation Endeavors.

Iconics achieved OPC UA Client Lab Certification from the OPC Foundation for its GENESIS64 V10.85 Platform Services.

Proseal UK is now able to securely access, diagnose and quickly resolve issues on its tray sealing machines located anywhere in the world, via secure Broadband connections.

Version 2.0 of the Matrikon OPC UA Embedded Software Development Kit (SDK) has been certified by the OPC Foundation’s Independent test labs to be compliant with the Embedded OPC Server profile.

The three companies will proceed over the next three years with the implementation of SecurePlant at around 50 Shell plants globally.

Icon Labs’ Floodgate security software runs with Mentor Graphics’ Nucleus RTOS and Mentor Embedded Linux.

By Bill Lydon, Editor I believe the growth and application of new technology is a stimulus for the development of new automation system solutions and architectures. These new technologies include, but are not limited to, the Internet of Things (IoT), big data and cloud analytics.

Frost & Sullivan predicts big changes are ahead in how to manage the global cyber threat, including the growing concern of state sponsored involvement and complexity of attacks on private business.

By Bill Lydon, Editor This is an update to previous automation and control trends articles and expresses my thoughts for 2015 and beyond. These opinions are based on a wide range of inputs from users, suppliers and industry consultants, and from attending more than 20 industry forums, conferences and trade shows last year.

By Tony Armstrong, Linear Technology Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) can be powered via energy harvesting. Here’s how to design a nanopower device that works with very low levels of power and current.

The data rate of 56Gb/s was achieved using duobinary encoding over a channel including the ExaMAX High Speed Backplane Connector.

Immediate access to secure, end-to-end networking service now widely available.

Remote management is now recognized as a best practice to creating strategic advantages by lowing cost and improving efficiency.

By Bill Lydon, Editor Cyber-attacks are on the rise. Do manufacturing companies need to experience major disasters before they take cyber security seriously? We have talked and written much about cyber security, but little action has been taken. The good news is there is an ever expanding range of cyber security protection solutions for those motivated to protect themselves.

The program will be held at the ARC Industry Forum, 9-12 February in Orlando, Florida

B+B created Connected Intelligence Global Partner Ecosystem to combine complementary partners under a virtual roof to facilitate IoT applications

B+B SmartWorx provides intelligent M2M and IoT connectivity solutions for wireless and wired networks.

PROFIBUS is number one but PROFINET and EtherNet/IP are catching up.