The following table provides information to developers and users of FDI Device Packages about the available
features in each release of the FDI Tools, and the FDI Technology Version support these features.
| FDI IDE version | 1.8 | 1.7 | 1.6 | 1.5 | 1.4 | 1.3 |
| Release date | Nov 2026 | July 2024 | Oct 2023 | May 2022 | Sept 2019 | May 2018 |
| Underlying FDI Specifications | ||||||
| FDI Specification version | 1.4.11 | 1.3 | 1.3 | 1.2 | 1.2 | 1.1 |
| EDDL Syntax and Semantics | unified ed 4.2 | unified ed 4.1 | unified ed 4.1 | unified ed 4.1 | unified ed 4 | unified ed 4 |
| EDD Interpretation | unified ed 2.2 | unified ed 2.1 | unified ed 2.1 | unified ed 2.1 | unified ed 2 | unified ed 2 |
| EDD Builtin library | unified ed 2.2 | unified ed 2.1 | unified ed 2.1 | unified ed 2.1 | unified ed 2 | unified ed 2 |
| 1FDI IDE 1.8 exposes the FDI 1.4.1 interfaces, with the exception of nestedcommunications, and reports FDI Technology Version 1.4.1 to User Interface Plug-ins. | ||||||
| FDI IDE and Common Host Components features and functions | ||||||
| Deployment FDI Package IDE | ||||||
| Installation of all entities (customizable) | x | x | x | x | x | x |
| Sample device packages | x | x | x | x | x | x |
| Update, Repair, Uninstall the product | x | x | x | x | x | x |
| DPCTT | x | x | x | x | x | x |
| FDI IDE Plug-In | ||||||
| Configuration of Tokenizers in IDE Plug-In | x | x | x | x | x | x |
| Create FDI Packages/FDI Package Project | x | x | x | x | x | x |
| Create HART (fm8) DDs, HART DD project | x | x | x | x | x | x |
| Create FF (ff4, ff5) DDs, FF DD project | x | x | x | x | x | x |
| Tokenize EDDL Code to FDI Binary Format | x | x | x | x | x | x |
| Tokenize EDDL Code to HART fm8 binary format | x | x | x | x | x | x |
| Tokenize EDDL Code to FF ff4 and ff5 binary format | x | x | x | x | x | x |
| Launch RRTE from IDE Plug-In | x | x | x | x | x | x |
| FDI Package signature | x | x | x | x | x | x |
| DD signature | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Support COMPONENT construct (PROFIBUS, PROFINET) | x | x | x | x | x | x |
| Time stamp for FDI Package signature | x | x | x | x | x | x |
| Semantic Information | x | x | x | x | x | - |
| Create DevInfo files and add to device package for HART | x | x | x | x | x | - |
| Attachment Metadata | x | x | x | x | - | - |
| Feature Table | x | x | x | - | - | - |
| RRTE/Common Host Components | ||||||
| Deploy/instantiate/load FDI Package to RRTE | x | x | x | x | x | x |
| Deploy/instantiate/load legacy HART (fm8) DD to RRTE | x | x | x | x | x | x |
| Deploy/instantiate/load legacy FF (ff4, ff5) DD to RRTE | x | x | x | x | x | x |
| Connect to device read/write values online | x | x | x | x | x | x |
| Remove Package from RRTE Catalog | x | x | x | x | x | x |
| Remove EDD from RRTE Catalog | x | x | x | x | x | x |
| Support OPCUA communication server (COMPONENT construct) | x | x | x | x | x | x |
| Offline operation/Upload/Download for FDI | x | x | x | x | x | x |
| Offline operation/Upload/Download for legacy HART | x | x | x | x | x | x |
| Offline operation/upload/Download for legacy FF | x | x | x | x | x | x |
| Interface to DPCTT | x | x | x | x | x | x |
| Modular Devices (COMPONENT constructs) | x | x | x | x | x | x |
| EDD debugging (HART, FF) | x | x | x | x | x | - |
| EDD debugging (PROFIBUS, PROFINET) | x | x | x | x | x | - |
| Device variants (PROFIBUS/PROFINET) | x | x | x | x | x | x |
| FDI Package signature validation | x | x | x | x | x | x |
| UIP running in sandbox | x | x | x | x | x | x |
| HTML5 UIP | x | x | x | x | x | - |
| Generic Protocol Extension | x | x | x | x | x | x |
| OPC UA interface for communication servers in general | x | x | x | x | - | - |
| EDD Engine platform independency | x | x | x | x | x | - |
| Semantic Information | x | x | x | x | - | - |
| Interactive transfer to device | x | x | x | x | - | - |
| PA-DIM Inspector | x | x | - | - | - | - |
| Blob Storage Services,HTML5 UIPs only | x | - | - | - | - | - |
| Nested communications:FDI Gateway Packagesand CommunicationGateway Plug-ins | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Technology versioning of FDI features | x | - | - | - | - | - |
| Variable AttributesValidity, Visibility, DisplayFormat, EditFormat | x | - | - | - | - | - |
| EngineeringUnitsNamespaceUri | x | - | - | - | - | - |
| Execute service | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| UIP Package | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| FDI Package Test Tool (DPCTT) | ||||||
| FDI device package test | x | x | x | x | x | x |
| HTML5 support | x | x | x | x | - | - |
| Device Package Host Compatability Check | x | - | - | - | - | - |
| OPC UA Servers | ||||||
| OPC UA information model server | - | - | - | - | x | x |
| OPC UA PA-DIM server | x | x | x | x | - | - |
| Communication Protocols | ||||||
| HART, integrated part of RRTE | x | x | x | x | x | x |
| FF H1, integrated part of RRTE | x | x | x | x | x | x |
| PROFIBUS, integrated part of RRTE | x | x | x | x | x | x |
| PROFINET communicaiton server | x | x | x | x | x | x |
| ISA 100 communication server | x | x | x | x | x | x |
| HART-IP communicaiton server | x | x | x | x | x | x |
| OPC UA communication server | x | x | x | x | - | - |
| HART, communication server | x | x | x | x | - | - |
| PROFIBUS, communication server | x | x | x | x | - | - |
| Modbus RTE | x | - | - | - | - | - |
| Modbus TCP | x | - | - | - | - | - |
| Device Simulation | ||||||
| HART | x | x | x | x | x | x |
| FF H1 | x | x | x | x | x | x |
| PROFIBUS | x | x | x | - | - | - |
| PROFINET | x | x | x | - | - | - |
| Notes | ||||||
| FDI Technology Version in FDI IDE 1.8 FDI IDE 1.8 is built on FDI Technology Version 1.4.1 (FCG TS10099 Ed. 1.4.1). It exposes all of the FDI 1.4.1 interfaces, with the exception of nested communications (FDI Gateway Packages and Communication Gateway Plug-ins, FCG TS62769-4 Ed. 1.4.1, TS62769-9 andTS62769-6-300), and it implements all of the interfaces it exposes. The Reference Run-time Environment (RRTE) and the Common Host Components report FDI Technology Version 1.4.1 to a User Interface Plug-in (UIP). The FDI type libraries delivered with FDI IDE 1.8 are the FDI 1.4.1 editions: the .NET type library Fdi 1.4.1 (file version 1.4.1.8) and the HTML5 type library fdi.ts 1.0.12 (FCG TS10099 Ed. 1.4.1, Tables 3 and 9). | ||||||
| The Execute service is an existing FDI 1.4.0 service. If called in FDI IDE 1.8, it returnsBad_NotSupported. | ||||||
EDD. The host writes the FDI_TECHNOLOGY_VERSION variable (FCG TS62769-4Annex K.2) when the package is loaded. The value carries the major and minor versiononly, so an EDD sees 0x0104 on both FDI 1.4.0 and FDI 1.4.1 hosts and cannot distinguishthem by this variable. For compatibility testing, the RRTE lets you choose the FDITechnology Version presented to the EDD (1.0 to 1.4). HTML5 UIP. HostingServices.getClientTechnologyVersion returns 1.4.1 in FDI IDE 1.8.fdi.ts 1.0.12 documents, for each addition, how to detect its availability: a service maybe absent from the object, or present and answering Bad_NotSupported; an unsupported Attribute reads as Bad_AttributeInvalid; an optional structure member isabsent; Blob Storage support is indicated by the BlobStorageSizeSupported hostingproperty. A UIP should use these checks rather than the version number alone.
FDI Packages and UIPs built with FDI IDE 1.8 run on any FDI host that implements the FDITechnology Version they require. A UIP that uses an FDI 1.4.0 or 1.4.1 feature should handlea host that does not provide it, as described in the type library documentation. | ||||||