FDT2 Standard released

FDT2 delivers enhancements and benefits to both users and device suppliers in the process and factory industries.

The FDT Group today announces the public release of enhancements to the FDT standard - FDT2. The FDT2 standard incorporates many significant new features requested by end users while maintaining full backward compatibility with the existing standard. The FDT Group also releases a set of comprehensive toolkits, called Common Components, which will speed development of FDT2 enabled products. The FDT2 specification is now available for immediate download at www.fdt2.org. The FDT Group anticipates that companies will announce FDT2 enabled products by the end of 2012.

FDT2 enhancements were driven by users and suppliers alike. For the users, the new specification delivers significantly higher speeds and improved overall performance while providing support for real- time monitoring with background and batch tasks. In addition, it provides enhanced security, rich PLC integration and support of all major factory and process automation networks. For suppliers, FDT2 provides device development in .NET and integration with Microsoft Visual Studio.

“This is the most significant advancement of a standard for the automation industry in the last three to five years,” observes Glenn Schulz, Managing Director of the FDT Group. “Our 85 member companies have funded this development and more than 25 companies have provided some of their best technical minds to make this standard possible. The FDT2 specification has been exhaustively tested by member companies around the world. We are delighted to make this extensive body of work immediately available to the public.”

In addition to the release of FDT2, the FDT Group released new Integrated Development Environment toolkit, called ‘FDTExpress’, for use with Visual Studio to develop FDT2 based products. FDTExpress is available to the general public at no charge.

ARC Advisory Group has published a report on FDT2 entitled “FDT 2.0 Primed for the Future” that can be downloaded from the ARC or FDT Group web sites.

The full FDT2 standard, the FDTExpress tool, and other FDT2 related material is now available for immediate download from the FDT Group web site. Please visit www.fdt2.org for more information.