Because OPC is a standard, does that imply that all OPC Servers for a specific protocol are the same?

 

 

OPC is a set of specifications that are designed to enable two applications (that are coded to one of the OPC Specifications) to share industrial data. The OPC specification just outlines what the interface is supposed to look like. It is up to the vendor who implements an OPC Server to properly engineer the application that provides data via the OPC Specification.

 

As we all know no two software developers are the same, thus it is very easy to understand why two OPC Servers made by different vendors can indeed conform to a specification, but be completely different.   This holds true for any application coded to a specification, be it DDE, ODBC, WS Services or OPC.