ProSoft Technology MVI56-PDPMV1 - Manual (Page 211)

MVI56-PDPMV1 ♦ ControlLogix Platform Reference
PROFIBUS DPV1 Master User Manual
ProSoft Technology, Inc. Page 211 of 255
March 22, 2011
To better understand the functionality of these components, consider the analogy
of the Internet - a standard web browser allows users to view countless web
pages created by many content providers. The host system supplier typically
creates the Frame Application, just as Microsoft supplies the Internet Explorer
web browser. Just as a web browser opens a web page that contains code from
the company that makes the web page, an FDT frame opens the Device DTM,
which is the plug-in software from the device vendor.
Similar to a web browser, the Frame Application has menu bars, toolbars, and a
navigation tree. Visually, the frame application surrounds the device vendor’s
DTM. Like opening a web page from a ‘favorites' navigation tree, a user can
navigate down a tree that lists the field device tags, click on one, and open the
device vendor’s DTM inside the frame. And, like web pages that let users interact
with a reservation system or a shopping service, the Device DTMs let the user
interact with the field device in a wide variety of ways. The Device DTM vendor
can create a graphically rich user interface that does virtually anything possible in
an advanced Windows PC-type interface. The third part of the technology, the
Communication DTM, provides a standardized communication Application
Process Interface (API) inside the PC, interfacing between the Device Vendor’s
DTM and the host system’s specific driver that handles pass-through
communications from the PC down to the fieldbus interface card.
The host system vendor supplies a Communication DTM (comDTM) for each
supported fieldbus protocol. This ensures that the details of the PC, network,
interface cards, and pass-through protocols of the host system, are transparent
to the device vendor’s DTM. This correlates back to the internet analogy where:
the web page is transparent to the PC it’s running in, the brand of the network
interface card in the PC, or whether communication is DSL or broadband cable.
FDT technology complements and expands existing device description
languages. It does not replace but rather builds upon existing DDs.
In particular, FDT expands the capabilities of DD for complex devices. Device
Description languages have limitations in the graphical representation of the
device at the user interface and allow only a limited integration of special
features. FDT/DTM removes these limitations.
Typical frame applications are

Pactware from The PACTware Consortium e.V (freeware)

FieldCare from Endress & Hauser

Field Control from ABB
What is DTM?
DTM (Device Type Manager) is a standard way to provide all necessary data and
functionality for a communication device, for example a PROFIBUS DP card.
This technology is similar to the way Microsoft Windows supports printer drivers
supplied by manufacturers and available to any Windows application, rather than
requiring a custom printer driver for each specific application.