Keeping an Eye on Technology Futures, No Hidden Agendas, New Attitudes, No Platitudes!
The delays are simply obfuscation by committee members, none of whom will admit to being pawns for the marketing ploys of the majors.
Emerson is focused on wireless standards for field-devices. Honeywell (and GE) want standards for much broader lines of products and systems located throughout process plants.
After the WirelessHART announcement (Oct. 2007), there was an initial skirmish. Then ISA and the HART foundation established a "joint technical committee" to assess the degree to which WirelessHART technology meets the ISA's objectives and whether it could be incorporated into what is now being called "the ISA-100 family of standards". (Notice the poetic choice of words). This was hailed as a major breakthrough. But can you guess how long it takes for any "committee" to agree?
In mid-2008, more than a half-year after the start of the joint ISA/HART collaboration, the 51 members of the committees and subcommittees have still not reached any agreement. (Hey, can you believe FIFTY-ONE members?)
The final vote on the recent ballot was 22 in favor, 20 against, 1 abstention, and 8 did not respond. It requires a majority (26) of the voting membership (51) to approve. Someone sent me a copy of the emails flying hither and thither and yon. I'm thinking of publishing it as a joke book. But, that would take several volumes. But, another poem? Nah.
And so, the "wireless wars" drag on. This is remarkably similar to what happened with the Fieldbus wars. Remember? ISA coordinated the SP-50 Fieldbus standard which never really got anywhere. The SP-100 standard was expected to take twice the effort, and hence the name: SP-100 (SP-50 x 2). But now, some on the committee think the heated arguments have tripled, and so the ISA wireless standard may be re-named: SP-150. Now, wouldn't that be poetic?
