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History of OPC
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1990 Prehistory - Windows 3.0 1990 What is OPC?
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1992 OLE 2.0 and WinSEM 1992
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1995 The Beginnings of OPC 1995
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free opc clients 1996 OPC Version 1.0 1996
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free opc utilities 1998 A Broader Scope for OPC 1998 Downloads, Webcasts, Live Advice
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dcom security 2001 Compliance Testing 2001 OPC Training
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delphi / c++builder Prehistory - Windows 3.0
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The need for OPC is probably best traced back to the introduction of Windows 3.0 in
introduction 1990. With Windows 3 it became possible, on an inexpensive, mainstream computing
sdks / toolkits platform, to run multiple applications simultaneously. Even better, Windows provided
free opc ua stuff a standard mechanism for those applications to exchange data at runtime. This
mechanism was Dynamic Data Exchange, or DDE, and it was not long before users
saw the benefits of having their process or plant data 'piped' into general purpose
other resources
applications like Microsoft Excel.
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training Soon however, the limitations of DDE became clear. It was not terribly robust, there
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was no support for DDE across a network, and, worst of all, its bandwidth was very
limited.
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A number of notable attempts were made to rectify these shortcomings, of which
Wonderware's InTouchTM SCADA software had the greatest impact. It introduced a
means of networking DDE traffic (NetDDETM, which was later taken up by Microsoft),
and also greatly increased the effective bandwidth of DDE by packing multiple data
items into each packet or message (FastDDETM). The main drawback of this scheme,
and others such as Rockwell Software's AdvanceDDETM, was that they remained
proprietary, requiring payments to their inventors, and thereby guaranteeing that
they would never attain the status of a true industry standard.

OLE 2.0 and WinSEM

When OLE 2.0 was launched in 1992, it was apparent that it would eventually replace
nearly all uses of DDE. It was more flexible, more robust, and used more efficient
transport mechanisms.

Around the same time, a group calling itself WinSEM (Windows in Science,
Engineering and Manufacturing) began meeting at Microsoft's Redmond headquarters.
This group's members were largely from the areas of industrial control and data
acquisition, with Microsoft acting as a catalyst.

By 1994, there was firm interest, focused through WinSEM, in the use of OLE
techniques for moving process data between applications in (almost) real-time. In
particular, a number of SCADA vendors saw the chance to standardize the interface
between the SCADA core and the device drivers which were actually responsible for
acquiring the data. Potentially, this could benefit both SCADA vendors and equipment
manufacturers: the SCADA vendor would not need to invest valuable effort in writing
drivers, while the equipment manufacturer would have to provide only one driver
which would work with all Windows software.

The most interesting proposal was submitted by US Data in March 1995. Seen next to
the released OPC specification, this document now appears ludicrously simplistic.
However, most of the key concepts of OPC were already in place.

After the publication of this promising document, progress towards a standard was,
sadly, very slow. It was the view of a number of the those involved in the WinSEM
effort (including Microsoft) that a smaller, more tightly focused group would be
needed to ensure timely delivery of a standard. This was the origin of the OPC Task
Force.

The Beginnings of OPC

The OPC Task Force went public at the 1995 ISA Show in New Orleans with a news
release. Its members consisted of Fisher-Rosemount (now Emerson Process
Management), Intellution (now part of GE Fanuc), Intuitive Technology (now part of
Wizcon Systems), OPTO 22, and Rockwell Software. Microsoft was to be involved in a
supportive and consultative role.

The first draft version of the OPC specification was released in December 1995, and
was presented to the last WinSEM gathering (to date) in Redmond in January 1996.
Despite a certain amount of pique due to the initial perception that an elite group had
run away with the standardization effort, the overall response was quite favorable and
very constructive.

A second draft specification followed in March 1996, and 'JumpStart' seminars were
held in Dallas, Texas (April 1996), London, England (July 1996), and Japan (August
1996) to give interested developers a fast track introduction to the proposed
standard.

OPC Version 1.0

The OPC specification version 1.0 was released on August 29 1996. A corrected
version 1.0A of the OPC Data Access Specification, as it is now known, appeared in
1997.

OPC Foundation
Having sought opinion throughout the industry, a decision was taken that the OPC
specification should be managed by an independent, non-profit organization to be
called the OPC Foundation.

The OPC Foundation made its presence felt at the 1996 ISA Show in Chicago, with
OPC server demonstrations from various companies at the Microsoft booth, and also
the first General Assembly meeting of members. Further collaborative demonstrations
have followed at major trade shows around the world.

Commercial products using OPC began to appear in late 1996. By mid-1998, the
widespread support for OPC had confirmed it as the industry standard.

The Foundation has broad industry support (over 300 members in total), with off-
shoots in Japan and China. It has its own website, www.opcfoundation.org.

A Broader Scope for OPC

OPC Data Access 2.0 was published in late 1998, and comprised separate specification
documents for the custom and automation interfaces. The custom specification
included a more robust 'advise on change' mechanism. The automation interfaces,
meanwhile, were redesigned for improved ease of use, and to take advantage of
technology improvements.

Also in late 1998, the scope of OPC was expanded with the publication of the Alarms
and Events custom interface specification, version 1.0.

2000 was a vintage year for the OPC Foundation, with the publication of new custom
interface specifications covering Historical Data Access, Batch and Security.
Compliance Testing
Arguably the most significant development of 2001 was the release of the OPC
Foundation's Compliance Testing and certification program for OPC Data Access
servers, which will soon be extended to cover Alarms & Events servers.

2001 also saw the release of the automation interface specification for Historical Data
Access, and Batch custom interface specification version 2.0.

Little other progress was made during 2001. See our review, twelve months on, of the
plans announced at Hannover Messe 2001.

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