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Hollerith machine


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Definition: OPC


(1) (Open Compute Project) A consortium devoted to streamlining datacenter operations. See Open Compute Project.

(2) (Optical Proximity Correction) See computational lithography.

(3) (OpenGL Performance Characterization) An ad-hoc project group that established performance benchmarks for OpenGL in 1993. OPC became part of SPEC in 1994. See SPECgpc.

(4) (Open Platform Communications) A set of connectivity standards for industrial automation from the OPC Foundation, Scottsdale, AZ. Originally "OLE for Process Control," OPC added extensions to Microsoft's COM and DCOM object technology in order to provide a set of common interfaces between Windows PCs and the shop floor. OPC offers interoperability between gauges, databases, programmable logic controllers (PLCs), distributed control systems (DCSs) and remote terminal units (RTUs). See OLE, PLC, DLC and RTU.

OPC DA and HDA
OPC Data Access (DA) reads and writes real-time data, while OPC Historical Data Access (HDA) deals with archived data.

OPC UA
OPC Unified Architecture is a secure communications protocol between the shop floor and the managment of the company.

OPC Vision
The OPC UA Companion Specification for Machine Vision provides a standard protocol for image processing systems to communicate with the machines on the factory floor.