The number of Profibus nodes installed around the world passed the 10 million milestone at the end of 2003 - substantially more than any other fieldbus, according to Profibus International. Revealing the figure in London recently, PI chairman Edgar Kuester hailed it as "a remarkable achievement".

He described that the contribution made by Profibus to both discrete and process manufacturing as "momentous, dwarfing those made by competitive technologies.

"Furthermore," he added, "the market`s enthusiasm for Profibus shows no sign of decreasing and we believe that we will double the number of installed devices to 20 million by 2008."

Profibus has recently introduced an Ethernet-based version called Profinet that will provide a migration path to Industrial Ethernet, not only for Profibus but also for other systems, including Interbus.

"Profinet brings together a rich combination of standards-based functionality and combines it with innovative hardware in a flexible package," Kuester said. "For users, it makes engineering, commissioning, operation and maintenance simpler and more effective, and promises improved return-on-investment across the enterprise."