Data from the production process is the foundation of factory automation and information technology. The factory's data acquisition system is responsible for collecting data from various controllers, instruments, and control systems, and transmitting and sharing this data with other systems that need it. A unified data exchange protocol is required between these data consuming systems and the data acquisition system to achieve data sharing. There are various ways for application software to exchange data, such as through intermediate data files, intermediate databases, shared memory, etc. Applications can also communicate directly through agreed-upon methods and protocols, such as DDE, COM, DCOM, OLE interfaces, and network communication interfaces. OPC, developed by the OPC Foundation based on Microsoft Windows' OLE technology, is a data exchange method aimed at enabling data exchange between software products from different vendors through a unified interface. Over the years, the OPC organization has developed technologies such as OPC DA (Data Acquisition), OPC Alarms & Events, OPC HDA (Historical Data), Batch, and Security. OPC DA has been widely used in the automation industry. With the rapid development of automation and informatization, user systems are becoming increasingly complex and large-scale. Users hope to effectively integrate and consolidate information from equipment at the factory level to enterprise decision-making at the top level, and to effectively utilize the valuable information they need from various automation and information systems within the factory. Sufficient information sharing is the foundation of factory automation, and breaking down information silos is a prerequisite for improving overall factory production efficiency. Therefore, users have increasingly higher requirements for data interaction and sharing, and the core position of data and exchange is becoming increasingly prominent. Traditional OPC technology has gradually shown its inflexibility, insufficient security mechanisms, platform limitations, and excessive complexity in implementation and use. Therefore, in 2006, the OPC Foundation launched OPC UA, a new unified architecture, to replace OPC DA technology. OPC UA completely abandons outdated COM and DCOM technologies. Compared with OPC DA, OPC UA represents a significant advancement. OPC UA is no longer limited to Windows systems but is a cross-platform technology standard, geared towards the future era of network computing, and is an ideal data exchange technology centered on SOA and Web Services. 1. OPC UA OPC UA (OPC Unified Architecture) refers to the OPC Unified Architecture, which is the latest development of OPC and is a service-based cross-platform solution. Compared with the OPC DA standard, OPC UA is cross-platform, provides higher reliability, security and data integration, and can significantly improve the connectivity of enterprise information. OPC UA has the following characteristics: (1) It expands the application platform of OPC, extending the OPC technology from the Windows platform to the Linux and Unix platforms. The open Internet-based WebService service architecture (SOA) and the Internet-based exceptionally flexible data exchange system provide strong technical support for building cross-regional data acquisition systems. Products based on the OPC UA standard can better realize factory-level data acquisition and management. From field devices such as PLC and DCS to HMI, SCADA, production and manufacturing systems, and enterprise upper-level management software, all can communicate uniformly through the OPC UA standard. (2) The OPC UA standard makes product development and use simpler. The OPC standard promotes the data interoperability between factory automation systems and information management systems, avoiding the complexity of non-standard data interfaces. The development of OPC UA products is easier than that of non-OPC products, so more and more manufacturers are starting to develop server and client applications based on OPC UA. (3) OPC UA defines a unified data and service model. This includes: an information model representing structure, behavior and semantics, a message model that enables applications to interact, a communication model for transmitting data between terminals, and a consistency model that ensures interoperability between systems. These unified models make data organization more flexible and enable interactive communication of alarms and events, data access, historical data access, control commands, and complex data. (4) OPC UA supports query and notification services. Service messages can be binary or XML, which means that OPC UA is not only suitable for data exchange from the device layer, automation layer to the information layer, but also can realize remote data exchange through the Internet, which can meet the data exchange needs of all levels of automated factories. (5) OPC UA is more secure than OPC DA. The data transmitted by OPC UA can be encrypted, and security control can be achieved for communication connections and the data itself. The new security model ensures the reliable transmission of data from the original equipment to MES, ERP systems, and from local to remote automation and information systems at all levels. In short, data and its interaction have gradually become the core of automation and information system applications. Automation systems will develop towards larger scale and greater systematization, and data integration will extend from the lowest level of equipment to the control layer to the highest level of decision-making and management. OPC UA is a technology that can well meet these data exchange requirements. The emergence of OPC UA is a necessity for automation systems in the new era, a product of the increasing importance of the Internet in automation systems, an inevitable result of users' need for unified, simplified, and easy-to-use data acquisition and exchange technologies, and a natural application of new technologies such as SOA and WebService in factory information construction during the era of network computing and cloud computing. It conforms to the future development trend of automation and information systems. If OPC UA is a new and ideal data acquisition technology based on SOA and WebService in the era of network computing and cloud computing, then .NET is the ideal development and operation platform for the next generation of automation and information software. OPC UA, as a data exchange technology, and .NET, as a software development and operation platform, are fundamentally the same. In terms of seamlessly building powerful, unified, and secure automation and information systems for the future, OPC UA and .NET are perfectly aligned. 9sys Automation Software's INSPEC configuration software is entirely based on the .NET platform and fully supports the OPC standard. The next generation of products will fully support the OPC UA standard and will continue to provide a common, integrated, and secure data model and device communication environment through the application of Microsoft .NET, based on SOA and Web Services data acquisition solutions, thereby achieving automation and information management at the entire factory level. 2. The .NET Platform: Microsoft .NET is a new generation operating platform that Microsoft has researched and developed for many years, launching globally in 2002. Early versions of .NET were optional add-ons for Windows (98, 2000, XP). Starting with Windows Vista, and in Windows 7 and future Windows systems, .NET will be built into the Windows system, becoming an important component of the Windows operating system. .NET is a new generation computing platform needed in the network age; it has changed the traditional computer computing model, replacing it with a network computing model. The core of .NET technology is to replace "computer computing" with "network computing", breaking through the concept of "software running on computers" and revolutionarily extending the operation of software to the network. It can be said that the software of the real .NET era runs on "computer networks". .NET is powerful and unified, and it is easy to build and run powerful applications with a variety of functions with a brand-new customer experience. Application software developed based on the .NET platform has many advantages that software based on Windows API does not have, mainly reflected in the following aspects: (1) A networked computing platform, based on the concepts of XML, components, services, and collaboration, and a large amount of existing program code can realize functions that are difficult to achieve using traditional technologies. It can solve larger and more complex application systems in less time. Networked large-scale application solutions are an important direction for the future development of automated software. (2) .NET is becoming increasingly important in the Windows system. From being an add-on option in the early days to being built into all Windows systems such as Vista and Windows 7, this fully demonstrates that .NET is an important part of the future Windows. Many new technologies in the Windows system appear in the form of .NET, and these technologies show a cross-platform trend, and will run on other operating systems such as Unix, Linux, Solaris, and Mac OS in the future. (3) More stable, reliable and secure. .NET application software can effectively avoid memory leaks, DLL nightmares, registry dependencies and programming interface inconsistencies caused by pointer problems common in traditional Windows programs. .NET programs have automatic garbage collection functions, and unified and concise programming interface technologies can significantly improve the stability and reliability of software. Enhanced code security mechanisms are more reliable than simple user security mechanisms. (4) A large number of mature and available technologies and functional codes make it easy to quickly develop stable and reliable application software (RAD). WCF implements a unified data communication framework, and WPF implements a unified data presentation framework. (5) Better scalability and unparalleled development potential. It can be seen that .NET is the ideal development and operation platform for the new generation of automation and information software, and OPC UA is the ideal technology for the new generation of data exchange. As a powerful and unified network computing platform, .NET's service-oriented system and its idea of ​​implementing large and complex system applications for the network coincide with the cross-platform and unified architecture of OPC UA. It can also be said that OPC UA is a manifestation of the idea of ​​.NET as an operating platform in terms of data acquisition, interaction and sharing. Naturally, it is simpler to develop and implement OPC UA on the .NET platform. For automation and information systems, both .NET and OPC UA are of great significance. Therefore, as an important branch product in automation and information construction, configuration software will inevitably develop based on the .NET platform and fully support OPC UA. 3. Development of configuration software The continuous development of the automation industry has put forward higher requirements for the application and function of configuration software, mainly reflected in the following aspects: (1) The development of configuration software has fully entered the new era of network computing; technologies and concepts such as .NET, SOA, SaaS, and WebService will be widely adopted. The new generation of configuration software will be network-centric and based on .NET technology. Future configuration software should be able to easily build scalable network distributed systems, solve the needs of large-scale monitoring systems through collaboration and load distribution, and flexibly choose the overall system architecture to realize complex monitoring system solutions. Among them, network-centric, XML and network services as the core, and the realization of networked computer collaboration is the most important development direction of future configuration software. The following diagram clearly shows the three eras of automation software development: (2) The latest IT, communication, and control technologies are widely adopted. The information integration of automation software with office software, ERP software, etc. will be further improved, and automation software systems and the "human brain system" will be more easily connected. (3) Large systems, complex systems, and high reliability. Reliability is the foundation of automation systems. The reliability of a system generally becomes more fragile as the system becomes more complex. With the expansion of the scale of monitoring systems, the requirements for system reliability are unprecedented. (4) The ways and means by which users obtain information from automation software will be more convenient, flexible, safe, and diversified. The user experience will be comprehensively improved. The Internet will become a basic part of the network. The boundaries between desktop human-computer interfaces and Internet interfaces, i.e., B/S and C/S, will be eliminated. The quality of graphics, stepless scaling, and the animation performance of virtual reality such as 3D will be put into practical use. (5) The requirements for the openness and interconnectivity of software will be greatly increased. The adoption of open and standardized technologies will become a trend. Open software interfaces are a requirement of users and an important guarantee for the adaptability and vitality of software. (6) The traditional functional requirements of configuration software are becoming more refined and professional, and the functions are showing a trend of modularization. Different functions for different industries are solved by professional subdivision of functional components rather than customization of the entire software. (7) The international perspective of software will become inevitable. Forward-thinking software will treat its products from a global perspective and provide support for multiple languages. (8) The requirements for the usability of software have been greatly improved to adapt to the rapid requirements of users in the information explosion era to learn, master and implement new knowledge products. After more than 20 years of development, configuration software is now realizing a leap and revolution from the "second generation" to the "third generation". A new era of configuration software that truly "replaces computers with networks", has a larger system scale, higher efficiency, more refined traditional functions, and is modular, componentized, service-based and collaborative is coming. 4. Summary The rapid development of automation systems has put forward more complex requirements for configuration software. How to deal with the monitoring challenges of large and complex systems is an important research topic for configuration software. In conclusion, the high openness and cross-platform compatibility of OPC UA and .NET technologies align with the development trends of the automation industry, laying a technological foundation for achieving integrated enterprise monitoring and management information. Adopting OPC UA and .NET technologies is an inevitable trend in the development of configuration software.