One would think that because the Fieldbus Foundation defines so many other parameters in its standards that the time for the Compel Data message used for the Publish/Subscribe messages on which control in the field is based would also be standardized. Not so. This sometimes makes it difficult for designers to properly estimate the macrocycle requirements, which is unfortunate since in many cases the bandwidth of the Fieldbus system is now the design constraint.

Though not a networking topic, the development of “smart instruments” as a result of the associated digital connectivity was a contributing factor. While at the ISA Calgary Exhibition last week and during my day there had a chance to wander the floor for about an hour – between my time at the ISA Edmonton Section booth and when visiting the Honeywell booth once again saw their Versaflow meter not getting the attention it deserves.

A little late, however I just found out that now that John Berra has officially retired, Dr. Gunther Kegel has been elected the chairman of the Fieldbus Foundation Board of Directors.  John was chairman for 16 years – basically since the beginning.

ISA announced a couple of days ago that a whole group of Honeywell and Yokogawa instruments and devices had completed WCI-compliance testing and were now certified ISA100.11a devices. That's cool.

Or is it?

Which ISA100.11a were these devices certified against?

ISA100.11a-2009, which was withdrawn from the ANSI approval process?

ISA100.11a-2010, which is being re-written with some significant changes from the 2009 model year and hasn't been approved yet?

The Honeywell User Group conference is in full swing down in Phoenix, and. in spite of the heat (yes, it is 98 deg F there this afternoon, which kind of puts a different perspective on the  68 deg F and cloudy here at ControlGlobal central). Anyway, our intrepid reporters have been been reporting via Twitter and blog posts since this morning.

After many years of "supporting OPC" by producing their own, incompatible, Honeywell OPC, Honeywell has acquired one of the fountainheads of OPC technology. For years, customers have complained that HOPC is a proprietary implementation of an open standard (!).

Now they'll be able to get both Honeywell service and support, and the real deal from Matrikon. That's a genuine win for all the Honeywell ecosystem...and for any third party that has ever tried to connect to a Honeywell OPC server.

Thanks to the Icelandic volcano with the incredibly difficult to pronounce name (Eyjafjallajokull, pronounced like this), the normal HART Communication Foundation press conference at Hanover Fair has been cancelled.

The HART folks, however, have decided to release all the press releases, case studies, and the statements of the members of the HART Board of Directors anyway.

The steamroller toward integrated device standards is rolling on. The latest to climb on the back of the steamroller is Honeywell. The goal is full device interoperability regardless of vendor. Let's hear it for everybody on the team.

 From their press release:

From the press release:

exida CERTIFIES HONEYWELL’S SAFETY MANAGER FOR FUNCTIONAL SECURITY

From the press release: