And now a customer perspective...
Pros of AIM*Historian:
1. You can modify it while it is running.
2. You can run it on the NT platform as well as AW51, and you can set
up remote collectors on both NT and Unix platforms.
3. Much better archiving and storage tools.
4. Reasonably clean Windows NT interface (with some annoying little
quirks) as well as the usual bulk command line interface.
Cons of AIM* Historian:
1. It can be an enormous resource hog. Our 6000-points-or-so
AIM*Historian runs on an AW51E, 256 MB RAM, a 9.1 GB hard drive, and we
notice considerable sluggishness over the AW51E we have that doesn't run
AIM*Historian. The Legacy Historian is no slouch hogging up resources also
of course, but I can recall a few years back at another site running a
similar number of points on an AW51C with a 1.2 GB drive without many
problems.
2. Could be a cost issue for some companies. And the AIM*Suite
utilities (AIM*Datalink, et. al.) don't buy you much over the ODBC interface
you can already get with the Legacy Historian. AIM*Datalink is a woefully
inadequate product. The only thing we use it for here is the DDE interface
so that we can link AIM*Historian real-time data to our Excel Visual Basic
sheets. Otherwise, no one uses it because it is cumbersome and requires
intimate knowledge of how the I/A system is put together, which our process
engineers don't have.
3. You must have at least one Windows NT workstation or server on the
network to configure it. It cannot be configured from Solaris except with
the command line interface, which is great for bulk edits but cumbersome for
small changes. This could be a problem for sites not running Windows NT.
4. Unlike Legacy Historian, no tools are provided for extracting
real-time data into tabular or text format with AIM*Historian by itself.
There is an Excel add-in, which is only somewhat helpful, but you must buy
the whole AIM*Suite to get it. If you want any sort of customization at
all, you must create your own tools using C or Visual Basic. If you happen
to know or want to learn C or VB, that's great, but if you don't know it or
don't have time to learn, you'll have to spend more money to hire someone
who does. You could also buy the Foxboro Canada report package, which also
works with the Legacy Historian.
We have AIM*Historian here, and I would never want to go back to the Legacy
Historian, despite the myriad of problems we have had with issues mostly
related to the remote collector we set up. We bought the whole AIM*Suite as
a small part of a huge project, we have NT here, and I happen to know a
little VB, so the cons are not an issue here, but they may be for some
sites. The fact that you can modify it while it is running is a big enough
pro for me to recommend it, especially to sites where historian uptime is a
big deal, like a refinery.
Tim Lowell
Control Systems Engineer
Phillips Petroleum Company, Trainer Refinery
Phone: 610-364-8362
Fax: 610-364-8211
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
-----Original Message-----
From: Johnson, Alex (Foxboro) [SMTP:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Thursday, September 27, 2001 9:25 AM
To: Foxboro DCS Mail List
Subject: RE: Legacy Historian Upgrade
You should give consideration to moving to AIM*. It contains
migration
utilities that preserve the customer's data and configuration
information.
Regards,
Alex Johnson
10707 Haddington
Houston, TX 77043
713.722.2859 (office)
713.722.2700 (switchboard)
713.932.0222 (fax)
[EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
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