DataWorks signs OEM agreement with Matrikon to offer OPC DA and HDA servers

ControlDesign.com
07/18/2005

DATAWORKS SYSTEMS, a unit of Incuity Software, has signed an OEM agreement with Canadian-based Matrikon, under which DataWorks will offer Matrikon's line of OPC DA and HDA servers for interfacing DataWorks' new Incuity EMI enterprise manufacturing intelligence products to manufacturing and process control systems as well as enterprise applications.

"The essence of our Incuity EMI products is their ability to connect to literally any data source in a manufacturing enterprise, whether that involves plant historians, databases, real-time production operations or enterprise-level business applications," explained John Nichols, DataWorks' Chief Operating Officer. "Rather than re-invent the wheel, we have chosen to offer Matrikon's more than 150 different OPC data servers on an OEM basis so that our VARs, system integrators and end user customers can easily connect to both historical and real-time production information. They then can use the power of Incuity EMI to easily access and deploy information from anywhere in the company to support better operational decision-making."

Randy Kondor, OPC Product Manager at Matrikon added that, "By choosing OPC to provide connectivity to Incuity EMI, DataWorks has ensured their customers have virtually universal connectivity options, plus the flexibility to add other best-of-breed solutions found in the OPC market today. The OPC standard is revolutionizing the way vendors and customers can use process data to enhance business operations at all levels."

The OPC interface is a standard developed by a consortium of automation system suppliers to create a universal interface to control systems and devices. OPC is built on the Microsoft object linking and embedding (OLE) platform and stands for OLE for Process Control. The OPC DA designation refers to servers that provide real-time data access to human-machine interface systems, reporting and analysis tools and other automation solutions. The OPC HDA designation refers to servers that get data from historians and relational databases and make it available to visualization software, reporting and analysis tools.

The Incuity HDA product will use the OPC HDA interfaces for connection to several different off-the-shelf plant floor historian products, to access production data and allow users to manipulate, view, trend and report on it in the appropriate context. The Incuity EMI product can use both the OPC DA and HDA interfaces to connect to multiple data sources across all levels of medium and large enterprises and offers more sophisticated capabilities for manipulating, viewing and sharing data throughout larger organizations.