Softing's Industry-Leading OPC Server Dedicated to SIEMENS S7/S5 Controllers Receives a Major Update

Softing, the world leader in providing conformant OPC development toolkits and OPC Servers for industrial automation, has announced the availability of a new version of its exceptional S7/S5 OPC Server.

The new version V4.0 effortlessly integrates with the SIEMENS Step7 programming software by offering a direct import of the tag names (S7 symbols) from the S7 project. This high-performance product is designed to operate simultaneous communication links to up-to 256 SIMATIC S7 and S5 or compatible controllers.

As an additional benefit, the S7/S5 OPC Server includes an OPC ActiveX client control with examples on how to create small HMI applications using Excel, Internet Explorer, or Visual Basic and a server-side OPC Tunnel (part of Softing's award-winning Easy Connect Suite).

Dedication is Key

Typically, automation system designers have a combination of key requirements for OPC related components. These requirements include, but are not limited to ease-of-use, high-performance (high data-throughput), 24x7 reliability, and security. Today, there is no multi-purpose OPC Server solution in the market that is able to fulfill all these key requirements at the same time.

In contrast, Softing's dedicated S7/S5 OPC Server is specifically designed to address every aspect of a system designer's needs.

• Ease-Of-Use

  • Tag Names (S7 Symbols) – Import all tag names (symbols) from a S7 project into an alias file that can be edited/optimized to fit the need of the application. There is no need to re-enter any tag names using the cumbersome S7 notation!
  • Commissioning Support – Speed-up commissioning by starting the included OPC test client any time during the commissioning phase to test the current configuration.
  • Program change during runtime – Re-configure/Re-program any communication link between the S7/S5 OPC server and an individual PLC without interrupting the data exchange to other controllers.
  • Time Synchronization – For each PLC connection, the system time of the OPC server (PC time) can be synchronized with the system time in the PLC.

• High-Performance

  The S7/S5 OPC Server employs a unique and proprietary algorithm to optimize the data throughput between the OPC Server and the SIEMENS controllers by automatically re-combining PLC Read and Write Requests for optimal performance. This feature alone renders Softing's OPC Server the best-in-class product.

• Reliability

  The included OPC configurator offers new features that allows control engineer to
  • test and diagnose the communication link between the OPC Server and a controller
  • easily detect and resolve problems with the help of diagnostic notifications that are displayed in clear text
  • define a relevant set of indicators to monitor the health of a communication link

• Security

  The integrated (server-side) Softing OPC Tunnel can be configured to demand user authentication from a remote OPC client to prevent unauthorized remote access.