Included are BACnet, LonTalk, Profibus, FND, Batibus, EIB and Foundation Fieldbus. The great thing about this kind of standard is that it allows for choice on the part of users, manufacturers and specifiers as well as encouraging promoters of most of the protocol choices currently available. There is no hiding behind exclusivity or the influence of a single organization. The fact that it is being developed as a pan-European standard encourages all manufacturers to adopt a compliant solution if they want to be a force in the global market. ActiveX can allow a video to run inside of a user interface or a Web browser to be embedded in a spreadsheet.
Power is limited only to the size and number of components that the computer can handle.
With computer capabilities doubling every 18 months, it is a safe bet that more and bigger ActiveX components will be developed. Hundreds of data-intensive applications have adopted this standard as the method of importing and exporting historical data. There are other methods of ensuring data compatibility, but they are mostly proprietary, such as when a system demands that all applications use an Oracle-compliant database. This standard, created and maintained by the OPC Foundation, was developed by a manufacturers of industrial process control equipment to provide interoperability. It has been quickly adopted by the building automation and control fraternity because of its ease of use and standardized interface.