openAPC Foundation e.V. has become Associate Member at Eclipse Foundation

April, 2011 (Dresden, Germany)
Since March 2011, the openAPC Foundation e.V. has become “Associate Member” at the Eclipse Foundation.

The openAPC Foundation e.V. in Dresden, Germany is using the Eclipse Public License (EPL) as open source license for free available Advanced Process Control (APC) software solutions. APC software is used to reveal process deviations and to increase process stability, i.e. during production and manufacturing processes.

“Right from the start of the openAPC Foundation setup process, we’re leveraging on the profound experience of the Eclipse Foundation in open source business”, said Bernhard Schimunek, Chairman of the openAPC Foundation. “Actually, we are really pleased from the excellent support we received from Eclipse Europe, we’d like to give special thanks to Mr. Ralph Mueller who helped to figure out the best open source licensing model and to develop our first governance model, based on the Eclipse Foundation model.”

“Also, we’re glad that we could support the openAPC Foundation so well”, said Ralph Mueller, the Director of Eclipse Europe. “The whole topic to deliver high reliable open source applications into manufacturing environments is really exciting and beneficial for all involved parties”.

“Since the openAPC Foundation gets more members and contributors we’ll have to setup consortial and collaborative operating software development teams. There is the need to establish an adjusted software development process, IP review and release process. We’re looking forward to counting on the experiences of the Eclipse Foundation”, said Mr. Manfred Austen, Director of openAPC Foundation, who is just preparing an OSGi project together with various partners, to see how openAPC modules can interact with any existing open source module supporting the OSGi interface standards.

“Finally, we intend to extend our partnership to the Eclipse Foundation by establishing a so called ‘IWG’ (Industrial Working Group)”, said Stephan Eberl, Director of openAPC Foundation, “as IWG the openAPC Foundation is able to focus solely on ‘advanced process control’ (APC) expertise and Eclipse will support us with the platform and the open source processes”. “We’re the specialists for advanced process control to stabilize and optimize processes and Eclipse is the leading association for open source business. We think that’s a perfect fit!”

The openAPC Foundation decided to use the ‘open source’ Eclipse public licensing model (EPL) because of the outstanding advantages for the users. Beyond the key benefit to get professional, high quality software solutions free of charge, the open source licensing model will ensure that continuously new features will be added and can be used by everyone for free. Accordingly, the users of the openAPC Software can spend the efforts and budgets to implement the APC software perfectly into their individual environment. In addition, suppliers of commercial APC software benefit from openAPC Foundation modules also, by enhancing the basic features with own, commercial applications.
Source and further Information
http://www.openapc-foundation.org

Other Links:
http://eclipse.org
http://www.systemagmbh.de
http://www.lfoundry.com
http://www.osbf.de

The openAPC Foundation e.V. is founded and supported by leading European companies, known from the semiconductor, solar, automotive and healthcare industry, with the objective to spread this beneficial APC technology to other companies and markets.

Bernhard Schimunek
schimunek@openapc-foundation.org
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openAPC Foundation e.V.
Manfred-von-Ardenne-Ring 6
01099 Dresden
Germany
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http://www.openapc-foundation.org
Tel. +49-171-7098171
Fax. +49-8238-958764

This release was published on openPR.