VOLKER SCHULZ, PROFIBUS ASSOCIATION SEA, SECRETARY

For PI (Profibus & Profinet International) 2007 was a very successful year: 20 million nodes are now on the market around the world, up from 10 million in 2004. With the ongoing development for Profinet, which will allow a seamless communication from the offi ce down to the sensor/actuator level, we are we smoothing the path for a simple changeover from Profi bus to Profi net.

Technical initiatives include defi ning the requirement profi le for Profi net in process automation to refl ect the manifold needs of users of a plant-wide communication system. And as part of the EDDL Cooperation Team, along with Fieldbus Foundation (FF), Hart, and OPC Foundation, a uniform solution for device integration called Field Device Integration (FDI) is being developed in collaboration with the FDT Group. The FDI Draft specifi cation is planned for release by the end of 2008.

A n o t h e r c o l l a b o r a t i v e effort with FF and Hart, is the Wireless Cooperation Team, an unprecedented project to collaborate on wireless technology in the manufacturing and process industries, and another step to deliver consistent functionality to end users.