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September 1, 2008 Article #20539 Volume 127, Issue 1 HPC
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Sun helps to move open source source to the manufacturing shop floor.
Open Standards to Usher New Era in Manufacturing: Machine-to-Machine Dialogs
Sun Joins MTConnect Technical Advisory Group (MTAG)
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Sun, long a proponent of open source technology, has joined the MTConnect Technical Adviosory Group (MTAG), expanding its advocacy of open communication to the area of manufacturing technology, as reported in Market Watch. MTConnect, is an open manufacturing technology standard using royalty free Internet communications technologies as its basis to encourage and enable manufacturing technology vendors and customers to safely and easily communicate.
"Sun Microsystems has a very long history of working with the industry and academia to create and promote open technology standards that drive genuine innovation," said Dave Edstrom, Chief Technologist of the Americas Software Practice for Sun Microsystems. "Open source and open standards are the keys to unlocking manufacturing innovation and efficiency around the world, particularly in growing emerging markets. I am thrilled Sun has been able to play a pivotal role in the development of such an important initiative as MTConnect."
MTAG aims to establish open standard communication protocols that would enable the tools and autonomous systems from disparate vendors found on the shop floor to communicate with one another in an integrated fashion as they each play a role in the manufacture of high-quality products as cost effectively as possible.
Incorporating interoperability into the design and building of the components of manufacturing technology will create opportunities for third-party solution providers to develop software and hardware products for a more productive manufacturing enterprise.
MTConnect seeks to follow the example of the IT industry, where the application of common, open industry standards has promoted interoperability among products from wide variety of vendors. As Market Watch puts it, "Just as large compute farms are used to accurately model microprocessors today, MTConnect should help enable the vision of "art to part, first-time correct" by taking advantage of large compute clusters."
With its demonstrated success in CAD/CAM, HPC, grid computing, simulation, real-time and modeling technology, Sun is in an excellent position to provide the ideal platform for MTConnect. Sun computing resources are already available to manufacturing technology companies via the Network.com Software Catalogue platform, making it easy to build, test, and deploy MTConnect enabled applications on-demand over the Internet.
Two of the principal forces behind the MTConnect initiative are Dr. Dave Patterson, professor of computer science at UC Berkeley, and Dave Edstrom of Sun. According to Edstrom, after attending the 2006 International Manufacturing Technology Show, he became "...absolutely convinced that creating a manufacturing technology standard using proven, open and royalty-free Internet technologies was an imperative effort in which Sun must invest. The expected impact of MTConnect on the manufacturing sector is analogous to the effect that the browser had on the development of the Internet: MTConnect will revolutionize the manufacturing technology industry by providing a common, open platform which, in turn, will revolutionize manufacturing."
For his part, Dr. Patterson added the observation that, "It is great news for the manufacturing technology industry that MTConnect is becoming real, and that Sun Microsystems will be officially joining the MTConnect Advisory Group."
"Sun recognized the potential of utilizing the power of information technology to move manufacturing to levels of productivity never seen before," added John Byrd, President of the Association for Manufacturing Technology. "When the history of MTConnect is written, Sun Microsystems will be recognized as having played a critical role in the development of the initial concept. Dave Edstrom's vision and foresight enabled thought leaders of our industry to step out of their comfort zone and tackle the most significant issue the manufacturing technology industry will face in the 21st Century."
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Open Standards to Usher New Era in Manufacturing: Machine-to-Machine Dialogs
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