Prior to the recent Emerson Global Users Exchange (Sept. 29-Oct. 3), Duncan Schleiss, VP for systems at Emerson Process Management, gave Putman Media editors a sneak peek at the new DeltaV version 10.3. “We are big proponents of the 20/20 rule,” Schleiss said. “Make it easy for the instrument technician.” DeltaV version 10.3 is not the huge makeover that many pundits have been calling “DeltaX.” That is still some distance away. But 10.3 contains advances over previous versions.
For one thing, it is designed to accommodate both Windows XP SP3 and Vista SP1. Keith Bellville and Randy Balentine, product marketing managers, described the ways DeltaV 10.3 has been improved with easy configuration tools. “Configuration,” Bellville said, “is a four letter word. Easy.” The first steps are an intuitive DeltaV to Intergraph SmartPlant Instrumentation (SPI) database interface, ease-of-use in DeltaV Foundation fieldbus tools, and a wholesale transition of the DeltaV Engineering Tools to a fluent, task-based, human-centered design.
CyberseCurity and safety in Version 10.3 Bob Huba, Emerson’s cybersecurity guru and DeltaV product manager, introduced what he referred to as “security in the age of COTS (commercial off the shelf) devices.” According to Huba, security has been integrated into this version of DeltaV. “Network and security devices become DeltaV devices,” he said, and there is easy configuration by DeltaV administrators. Security alerts and diagnostics are also integrated into DeltaV and appear as would any other process alarms and alerts.
“We’ve also provided a controller firewall,” he said, referring to the device Emerson labels from Innominate Security Technologies (Berlin). The challenge, he noted, was maintaining DCS openness in the age of enterprise integration. batCh oPerations Dawn Marruchella, batch product marketing manager, claimed “batch leadership” for DeltaV, and noted that ever since version 8.0, DeltaV has had a robust batch executive, and that in version 10, Emerson introduced a single environment for batch operations.
New features in version 10.3 include a bigger, faster “MX” batch controller. There’s a new historian, too, but Marruchella firmly proclaimed support for Emerson’s version of the embedded PI historian, and noted that with version 10.3 Enterprise PI can be installed on a DeltaV application station. Emerson’s acquisition of DMI last year has borne fruit in version 10.3 as well. Product manager Bob Lenich showed our editors the DeltaV Compliance Suite, which, he said, “closes the loop in batch manufacturing.”
Wireless, too DeltaV 10.3 includes native support for WirelessHART instrumentation and gateways. Emerson’s AMS asset management system will include a wireless snap-on that allows users to design networks graphically, and then monitor network health directly in AMS. Version 10.3 includes support for Cisco/Smart Wireless applications, including implementation of the Panasonic U1 wireless palm-held computer as a complete DeltaV workstation.
