Fieldbus technology is maturing rapidly and it will not take long until it is widely accepted in the chemical and petrochemical industries. There are indications that the technology will be used in world-scale projects. Also, there are numerous examples of small-scale applications, but there have as yet been only a few occasional uses in major projects. This applies both to the Foundation Fieldbus and the Profibus-PA. Profibus-DP is already used a lot in the manufacturing industry and in package units in process plants. While the present hardware concept of the fieldbus as described by Fieldbus Foundation and Profibus will definitely function, it is by no means perfect yet and leaves room for improvement. In this article we put forward a new hardware concept for the fieldbus which does not have the limitations of the current concept. This new concept will also stimulate new developments in the area of field instruments.
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