An end to a world war may at last be in sight. It may even come as soon as the end of this year. A peace deal is currently being hammered out which involves three rival fieldbus standards: Profibus International from Germany; WorldFip of France; and Fieldbus Foundation from North America. The aim is to take the best bits from each of the rivals and make a unified worldwide standard acceptable to a majority of players in this field. This is the first time that real agreement has looked likely, a situation largely prompted by the International Electrotechnical Commission's Committee of Action (CoA). It was asked to overturn a no vote last year on a proposed world standard, IEC 61158. But instead, it ordered a subcommittee to seek a compromise, effectively allowing the inclusion of other fieldbus protocols in the standard. If that attempt fails, the CoA has provided for the existing fieldbus technical specifications in the IEC standard to be transformed into international standards.
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