ABB’s system planning and development strategy is fundamental - new features and capabilities must be able to be adapted seamlessly with minimum impact to existing applications. Our development process involves rigid guidelines to ensure the compatibility of differing versions and models of system components. Each new step is a natural progression of the current system offering and never behaves like a plug-in or raw adaptation of someone else's product. For example, your application code runs as it did when first developed and new controllers can coexist on the same control network as previous generations and operate together seamlessly.
In order to fulfill an individually tailored upgrade path, ABB system enhancements provide a unique offering of flexibility and scalability. The ability to mix and match hardware and software of different generations is one of our strengths. ABB has products that preserve the investments you have made in field wiring and connections, I/O, and controller hardware. This provides the use of your base control hardware infrastructure, and protects the intellectual investment you’ve made in your software applications. For example:
- Graphics: Saves time and expense of re-engineering and intensive user/operator retraining.
- Database: History data preservation restores existing historical data and can be transferred directly to the new history platform.
- Field Wiring: Eliminates the need for field rewiring and reduces the time and costs for re-checkout when existing I/O is replaced with a new I/O product.