What do the letters “O-P-C” stand for?

The letters OPC really do not stand for anything. OPC is simply OPC.  In the past OPC stood for the acronym OLE for Process Control, where OLE referred to Microsoft’s Object Linking and Embedding technology. OPC was designed to solve a problem that was very prevalent in process control: real-time data transfer between industrial applications. The classic OPC specifications are implemented using Microsoft’s COM/DCOM technology, which was originally based on OLE.  Newer OPC specifications, such as OPC UA (Unified Architecture) are no longer tied to the Microsoft platform.  Also, it is not only process control that needs data transfer, people from all industries need real-time data transfer between software applications. OPC is no longer just for process control any longer, and is used by discrete manufacturing, building automation, power and utilities and many other verticals.

The OPC foundation felt that “OLE for process control” did not describe what OPC was about, so the acronym was officially dropped.  OPC now stands for industrial interoperability.

 

For more on the basics of OPC refer to the OPC Tutorials section.