To tap this potential, the process engineer is faced with the need to integrate these modern hardware devices, as well as older, existing devices, with an automated software system to maximize process efficiency and to make plant floor information available on an enterprise-wide basis.
Object Linking & Embedding for Process Control (OPC™) enables cost-effective distribution of production information over the enterprise intranet to Windows desktops. This standard has made possible a wide range of applications that provide managers the real-time and historical process data they need for decision-making. OPC is a communication (interface) standard based on extensions to object linking and embedding (OLE) concepts created by task force of consortium to rapidly develop this for manufacturing automation to improve interoperability among industrial devices and software.
AIM*AT software utilizes an I/O gate architecture along with an integrated device driver capability. Each I/O gate provides interface capability between the AIM*Historian server software and plant/mill process client devices using specific connection mechanisms, such as OPC. If a driver available from any vendor supports the connection mechanisms within an available I/O gate, the device can be connected to the AIM*Historian software.
The AIM*AT I/O gates provide connectivity between AIM*Historian software and a wide range of distributed control systems (DCSs), programmable logic controllers (PLCs), and other control systems. The I/O gate is configured within the AIM*Historian software instance to receive data from specific protocol drivers. The OPC I/O gate uses remote procedure calls as the connection mechanism between AIM*Historian software and the I/O gate.
Each I/O gate driver is optimized for plant floor integration and uses a COM-like internal design. It integrates with the AIM*Historian software allowing a user to control the connection to each device independently. Previously made connections are automatically reconnected on reboot.
An I/O gate can be local or remote from the AIM*Historian software instances it supports. To make a single connection, you need an I/O gate collector and an I/O gate driver operating on the same computer. If a network is used, more than one connection can be made using a single network connection. If dedicated connections are used, each requires a separate driver, but a single I/O gate collector can be used for all drivers using the same connection mechanism, such as OPC. The OPC I/O gate driver and I/O gate collector can be installed separately on a Windows NT platform to provide data collection from OPC compliant devices
With AIM*AT OPC Server software, any OPC client application can access information from the following data servers:
Real-time data from I/A Series workstations AW51 and AW70
- Real-time and historical data from AIM*Historian instances
- Real-time data and process history from AIM-Supervisor systems.
This fully compliant server offers all the functions and benefits of the most recent OPC Foundation standards for data access (DA 2.04) and historical data access (HDA 1.0). The server also supports the interfaces defined by the OPC Foundation in its earlier data access specification (DA 1.0a). The server communicates with data servers over TCP/IP using the network facilities of AIM*API software, which are included with the server software.The AIM*AT OPC Server runs on either the same workstation as the data server or remotely on a Windows NT or Windows 2000 workstation.
AIM*AT OPC Server software includes the following features:
- Full compliance with OPC Data Access Custom Interface Specification, Versions 2.04 and V 1.0a and listed as compliant on the OPC Foundation Website
- Full compliance with OPC Historical Data Access Custom Interface Specification, Version 1.0
- Support for many of the optional interfaces including browsing for server address space and asynchronous data retrieval
- Automatic detection of available data servers and OPC item IDs without server database configuration
- Access to data from multiple servers simultaneously
- Minimal configuration following installation, using a convenient graphical configuration utility
- Configurable security access for read and write data
- Matrikon OPC Explorer, a general-purpose OPC client for browsing and accessing real-time data
- Extensive logging and error tracking capabilities.
The OPC server’s full compliance with the OPC data access standards means that any OPC client, whether developed according to DA 2.04 or DA 1.0a, has assured access to real-time process information from the I/A Series system or AIM-Supervisor system. The server fully supports the OPC specification for historical data access, giving HDA 1.0 compliant clients access to both real-time data and process history collected by AIM*Historian and AIM-Supervisor applications.
The software includes the OPC Server Browser, ActiveX Interface Marshalling Library, and all DLLs required by the standard.
