2008 Press Releases-18

Yokogawa Electric Corporation announces the release of version R9.01 of the FAST/TOOLS SCADA system. Preferred by innovative industrial automation users worldwide, this next-generation, platform-independent process management software sets the standard for Operational Excellence and consistently combines great technology with exceptional quality, performance, and ease of use. Thirty years of innovation and project experience in the oil & gas, petrochemical, and power industries have resulted in the most advanced SCADA solution yet – one that is designed to meet the latest engineering, visualization, and ergonomic needs.

This enhanced version of the FAST/TOOLS SCADA system builds on the strengths and successes of its predecessors by providing a totally new state-of-the-art web-based visualization environment and associated highly secure network infrastructure and web services. This version's enhanced integration and application capabilities facilitate ever more intuitive and advanced visualization as well as accelerated deployment of process mimics and alarm/trend overviews. Sophisticated management utilities provide enhanced diagnostics that reduce costs and streamline system setup across geographically dispersed manufacturing execution system domains.

Main Features

Secure deployment
To enhance security, this system and its applications are hardened to protect against failures and prevent unauthorized access and use. At the same time, thanks to a simple licensing policy, it is now easier than ever to reduce costs through web-based virtualization. A web-based server and client architecture ensures easy remote access and deployment of security enhancements as well as graphics and application services.

Advanced graphical object manipulation and animation
A new visualization editor with advanced scalable graphics allows virtually unlimited manipulation of shapes and symbols. The new editor combines the power of today's most sophisticated graphical applications in one easy to manage package. It also supports direct animation of process drawing elements and shapes.

Dynamic layers and visibility groups built for the web
Process mimics can be built with dynamic layers and backgrounds that can be independently rendered visible and/or transparent in the operator environment. These layers can be triggered by process conditions, manual controls, or user login privileges. This feature enables multilevel process and key performance indicator (KPI) monitoring and supervision within a single operations environment. Furthermore, visualization groups can be defined for clutter/de-clutter zooming areas, allowing details to become visible depending on the display zoom level.

High availability computing and wide integration
Stand-alone as well as cluster and fault tolerant configurations are possible, guaranteeing fit-for-purpose availability and productivity. Thanks to this system's reduced complexity and comprehensive set of administration and diagnostic tools, existing infrastructure can be easily managed and integrated. Seamless vertical and horizontal integration with the Yokogawa product family including the Exaquantum Plant Information Management System and STARDOM Network-based Control System as well as many third-party software and hardware products is achieved.

Satoru Kurosu, Senior Vice President and head of Yokogawa's Industrial Automation Business Headquarters, comments as follows: "The FAST/TOOLS R9.01 web-based environment will bring changes in real-time information intelligence, enabling an evolution to a much more intuitive and advanced approach in process visualization and associated dashboard views."

The improved features of FAST/TOOLS R9.01 will reduce operating faults and costs associated with display development and maintenance. The client/host architecture operates on the Windows Vista, XP, 2003/2008 Server, and Linux Redhat platforms. Dynamic layers and visibility groups enable multilevel processes and KPI monitoring and supervision within one operations environment.

Main Target Markets and Applications
Process monitoring and asset management in industries such as oil and gas, petrochemicals, chemicals, power, pulp and paper, pharmaceuticals, food, iron and steel, waste, and water and wastewater treatment

Yokogawa's Commitment to This Field
Since 1978, Yokogawa has sold more than 10,000 FAST/TOOLS packages worldwide for use in all types of SCADA and process management projects. Yokogawa continually endeavors to meet its customers' needs by providing highly reliable enhancements to this product based on leading edge technology.

For more information about FAST/TOOLS, please visit
http://www.yokogawa.com/scd/scd-scada-index-en.htm