Specifications

experience across the range of
ViewAnyWare platforms.”
The Electronic Operator
Interface (EOI) business at
Rockwell Automation is also
increasing the level of scalability,
portability, interoperability, and
preferred compatibility with other
Rockwell Automation products under the
ViewAnyWare platform.
“We’re bridging the gap between machine-level and
supervisory-level applications to provide a common user
experience across a complete architecture of products,
resulting in greater productivity, flexibility, and a lower
total cost of ownership,” says Mark Hobbs, EOI product
manager, Rockwell Automation, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
The EOI business is currently developing a complete
family of next-generation PanelView products
(PanelView Plus™) that will form an essential part of
the ViewAnyWare architecture. These highly optimized,
embedded products will be configured from the RSView
Studio common development environment and will
support application reuse, portability, and interoper-
ability across the full range of ViewAnyWare-
compatible products. EOI also plans to support the
future migration of today’s Allen-Bradley PanelView
products.
Use of Rockwell Software open, flexible, robust
visualization software technologies.
Reaching a common configuration environment requires
leveraging hardware platforms using HMI software.
RSView has always leveraged open technologies such
as ActiveX, COM (component object modeling), open
database connectivity, and OPC (object linking and
embedding for process control) to provide a high level
of customization and integration among different
applications. Now it will embrace and extend web-
based technologies to provide more scalable solutions –
enterprise wide.
Adoption of an open and flexible architecture
founded on Microsoft’s DNA for Manufacturing.
In 1998, Microsoft introduced Windows Distributed
interNet Applications for Manufacturing (Windows
DNA-M), a framework for seamlessly integrating
multiple business applications within the enterprise.
Manufacturing software suppliers, such as Rockwell
Software, can take advantage of this framework to
develop robust, feature-rich products that provide the
underpinnings for enterprise-wide automation and
information solutions. Customers can then deploy
those integrated solutions to bring together disparate
manufacturing and business software applications,
providing an in-depth view of the entire enterprise.
Providing common form, fit, and function on multiple
platforms for both open and embedded solutions is
unprecedented. Equally important is the ability of
the three core Rockwell Automation businesses to
collaborate on design and code reuse to ensure a
single-point-of-contact solution for customers.
With ViewAnyWare, Rockwell Automation bridges the
gap between traditional, dedicated machine-level HMI
devices and distributed, supervisory-level PC-based
HMI systems. Rockwell Automation is one of few
automation suppliers with world-class competencies
and a proven track record in dedicated operator
interfaces, open industrial computing platforms, and
PC-based HMI software. ViewAnyWare brings all of
those competencies together.
ViewAnyWare as part of an
Integrated Architecture
ViewAnyWare, together with Logix™ for control and
NetLinx™ Open Architecture for communication, make
up Rockwell Automation’s Integrated Architecture
strategy.
Logix provides a single integrated control architecture
for sequential, process, motion, and drive control, with
greater performance and flexibility. It uses a common
development environment for all applications regardless
of size or complexity.
NetLinx provides the common set of features and
services for DeviceNet, ControlNet and EtherNet/IP
networks resulting in lower total cost of ownership.
Users can easily manage information from shop floor
to top floor and seamlessly integrate their complete
system as they control, configure and collect data.
Rockwell Automation’s integrated architecture helps
manufacturers increase throughput, lower costs,
achieve superior quality, and improve reliability.
The common design-time environment, application
reuse, and scalable architecture across the entire
operator interface continuum are clearly competitive
differentiators. With its ViewAnyWare strategy,
Rockwell Automation is uniquely qualified to offer
customers a complete automation solution.
14
The VIEW
ViewAnyWare