OPC specification enhancements, pre-tested platforms and SDKs shorten time to marked. 

In a case study on standards-based industrial communication the OPC Foundation, Intel, ascolab and Unified Automation worked closely together to measure the performance of OPC UA. The study compares OPC UA communication on different processor and operating system platforms.

With the new OPC Unified Architecture (UA) the OPC Foundation gave the answer to increasing demand and extended requirements for standardized communication interfaces on the embedded device market. Industrial automation systems based on QNX Software Systems RTOS now take advantage from this new technology.

Erlangen, Germany – August 10, 2009. Unified Automation GmbH, ascolab GmbH and QNX Software Systems have proven OPC UA technology on QNX Neutrino 6.4.1. Unified Automation GmbH announced its new product: a Software Development Kit (SDK) supporting QNX. This proven and production ready OPC UA SDK reduces development effort, thereby shortening time to market for the integration of OPC UA on Neutrino based embedded devices.

Unified Automation’s Software Development Kit (SDK) was the favored technology to integrate OPC UA in ‘Alpha Ventus’, an offshore wind park test site in the North Sea. OPC Unified Architecture is ensuring fast, reliable and secure communication with onshore control applications and enterprise information systems.

Permanently strong and steady wind guaranties effective wind energy generation 45 kilometers from the German coast. Each wind mill is designed as an autonomous, fully automated, self-monitoring energy plant. Offshore wind parks, build far away from the coast and waterways, have very low environmental impact. They must run under rough conditions like humidity, salt and extreme temperatures and their autonomous control system must guaranty most effective operation at all times. Depending on weather condition accessibility might be infrequently, therefore all components must be construed for long maintenance intervals and of course this includes the software components. The need for long term operation leads to high requirements in terms of reliability and robustness.

Unified Automation, ascolab GmbH, and TenAsys will work together to provide an OPC UA communication server for embedded x86 platforms.

Schwabach, Germany – February 04, 2009. Unified Automation GmbH and ascolab GmbH announce their technology partnership with TenAsys Corporation (Beaverton, Oregon, USA), a leading provider of real-time OS and virtualization software technology,  for application of the OPC standard Unified Architecture (OPC UA) SDK to the TenAsys INtime RTOS.