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.

From 'Sound Off! Editors' Blog'

There is new hope for End Users that a uniform interface to the rich information such as diagnostics and related material in smart instruments may soon be available. This is because a number of supplier companies have joined the FDI cooperation project that initially consisted of the major technology trade organizations, FDT Group, Fieldbus Foundation, HART Communication Foundation, OPC Foundation and PROFIBUS Nutzerorganisation.From 'The Great Kanduski: Best Practices in Industrial Networking'

After last week's announcement by Endress+Hauser at the Rockwell Automation Automation Fair of a Coriolis Mass Flow meter with native Ethernet communications, instead of Foundation Fieldbus, HART or Profibus, Rockwell Automation again gives Cisco Systems' "Ethernet to the Device" and the IPv6 Internet protocol a big lift.

Rockwell Automation has announced a development from the Odo Struger Laboratory at the University of Vienna-- a device stack for Ethernet/IP.

From 'Sound Off! Editors' Blog'

Here is a press release from Liz Patronella at the HART Communication Foundation detailing the outcome of the NAMUR testing at BASF Ludwigshafen:

From 'Sound Off! Editors' Blog'

　

To view this email as a web page, go here.

 

From 'Sound Off! Editors' Blog'

As the ISA100.11a draft standard nears approval, the chorus of vendors committed to WirelessHART, at least for now, continues to swell. Last month, at Interkama, ELPRO Technologies, Emerson, Endress+Hauser, Pepperl+Fuchs and MACTek all launched WirelessHART products. ABB launched its own WirelessHART product line at its ABB Automation and Power World last month, and now, at Achema (the world's largest chemical exposition) Dust and Phoenix Contact have made a long-awaited announcement that Phoenix Contact will be making a Dust-enabled WirelessHART Gateway.

From 'Sound Off! Editors' Blog'

At the 63rd (2008) Texas A&M Instrumentation Symposium for the Process Industries, for which I had the great honor of being the keynote speaker, I heard an excellent presentation by Madhukar Puniani from Endress+Hauser about practical energy management.

From 'Sound Off! Editors' Blog'

Not a good day for folks in automation. This news has just come in.

Dr Georg H Endress has passed away at the age of 84

The Endress+Hauser Group is mourning their founder Dr. Georg H Endress. The entrepreneur died on 14 December 2008 after a brief, grave illness a few weeks before his 85th birthday, surrounded by his family in Arlesheim, Switzerland. He is survived by his wife Alice Endress-Vogt and the couple's large family.

From 'Sound Off! Editors' Blog'