The original intention of OLE is object connection and embedding. With the release of OLE2, its scope has gone far beyond this concept. Nowadays, OLE contains many new features, such as unified data transmission, structured storage and automation, and has become a specification independent of computer language, operating system and even hardware platform.
Based on OLE specification, OPC provides a standard data access mechanism for industrial control field. A large number of field devices are used in industrial control field. Before OPC appeared, software developers needed to develop a large number of drivers to connect these devices.
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OPC takes OLE/COM mechanism as the communication standard of application. OLE/COM is a client/server mode, which has the advantages of language independence, code reusability and easy integration.
The code in OPC server determines the naming rules of equipment and data accessed by the server, and the details of data items and data accessed by the server. No matter what form the field equipment exists, customers will access it uniformly, thus ensuring the transparency of the software to customers and completely separating users from the underlying development.
The client application only needs to use the standard interface to communicate with the server, and does not need to know the underlying implementation details.