FDT Group™, an international, non-profit industry association supporting the evolution of FDT® technology for industrial device management, recently announced that FDT Service Provider M&M Software released fdtCONTAINER® version 4.8, a point-to-point device configuration tool supporting the latest FDT 3.0 specification to meet user demands for modern intelligent device management and monitoring initiatives. This release also includes updated developer tools which simplify the migration to FDT 3 systems and smart device DTMs for the vendor community.

Smart manufacturing initiatives drive end users and suppliers of industrial automation systems and devices to seek modern and comprehensive device management solutions that use interoperable, efficient, and sustainable plug-and-play engineering tools. FDT, an IEC 62453 embedded software standard, normalizes device data and communication between any host and device. The standard, rooted in the host and device environments, provides users with a single tool for intelligent device management, operation, diagnosis, and maintenance. The latest FDT 3.0 specification enables a FDT Unified Environment (FDT UE) for IT/OT data-driven operations via authenticated OPC UA, FDT UE, and mobile clients.

FDT Group partners with leading service providers worldwide that assist companies interested in FDT-enabled product development. These organizations provide training and resources to educate customers about FDT (FDT 1.x and 2.x) and FDT UE (3.0), offer technical guidance on system and device integration, and help suppliers future-proof their system and device management strategy. Providers are updating their product offerings and development tools to assist next-generation architectures based on the FDT 3.0 standard designed to meet industry demands for modern intelligent device management and monitoring initiatives for the process and factory markets. 

“M&M Software is proud to be an FDT Service Provider, offering invaluable advice and support to system and device suppliers interested in innovative system and device management strategies based on the FDT standard,” states Pingsheng Xu, Development Manager, M&M Software. “We are thrilled that our product offerings now support the latest FDT (3.0) UE standard, allowing users and vendors a seamless migration path for industrial device management modernization and providing new features supporting smart manufacturing projects.”

M&M Software’s FDT UE-ready product line includes:

●      OEM fdtCONTAINER application 4.8 – Free point-to-point device management and configuration tool supporting all DTM generations for users.

●      fdtCONTAINER component 4.0 (aka. FDT UE - Desktop Common Component) – The official component for integrating the FDT 3.0 interface and DTM runtime into an engineering application for system vendors with branded customizations and other value-add features.

●      dtmMANAGER development suite 4.0 – The comprehensive FDT 3.0 DTM development suite provides a simplified environment for device vendors to develop DTMs, allowing vendors to focus on the value-add device model features.

“Working closely with our service providers, such as M&M Software, reduces barriers for FDT product development for market entry,” says Steve Biegacki, Managing Director, FDT Group. “The global industrial automation community has widely adopted the FDT standard, and M&M Software has been a key player for its acceptance by enabling multi-vendor support over multiple communication protocols while leveraging a common information model and user interface.”

For more information: www.fdtgroup.org and www.mm-software.com