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Modern plants employ machines that must share signals with one another, either directly or through a supervisory machine such as the PLC. During the past decade, engineers had to choose between a host of Fieldbus options to connect these machines: Foundation Fieldbus, Modbus, DeviceNet, ProfiNet are just a few. Now, Ethernet variants are joining the group either as discreet choices or as modifications to existing Fieldbus protocols looking to take advantage of Ethernet's installed base and compatibility. Will Ethernet become the glue that lets the front office view the shop floor in real-time?
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