Page 6 - 210922_BACnet_Europe-Journal_35_low

Anniversary – 30 years of BACnet Jubiläum – 30 Jahre BACnet

The Big Bang of Open Communication in

Building Automation and Control – The

Development of “Open Communication”

Urknall der offenen Kommunikation in der

Gebäudeautomation – Der Werdegang zur

„Offenen Kommunikation“

In this article, Hans Kranz, a pioneer in the building automation
industry, describes the evolution toward open communication from
his personal perspective. On many occasions he found himself at
the very beginning of key technological developments and played a
significant role in shaping their early stages.
In diesem Beitrag schildert Hans Kranz, ein Pionier der Gebäudeau-
tomation, die Entwicklung hin zur offenen Kommunikation aus sei-
ner persönlichen Perspektive. Oftmals stand er am Anfang zen- Fig. 1: 1975 study for the “BACS” control system, IBM mega-chip plant Böblingen Hulb
traler technologischer Entwicklungen und prägte deren frühen Abb.1: 1975 Studie für Leitsystem „BACS“ IBM Megachip-Werk Böblingen Hulb
Werdegang maßgeblich.

Let us start with the acronyms “BAC” and “BACS”, which later became
established worldwide as the designation for the Building Automation
and Control (BAC) industry and its systems. In 1974, I was recruited
by the engineering office Schmidt-Reuter from Honeywell to plan the
measurement and control technology for the first IBM mega-chip plant
in Europe. After I had been pilot project manager for the first fully digital,
programmable supervisory and control system (Honeywell Delta 2000), I
suggested during a meeting with IBM that such a plant should also have
a central supervisory system, and that I could also plan and tender such a
system. The IBM representatives said this was not possible, because the
central system manufacturers under consideration would use computers
that did not bear the IBM name. However, after a briefing on the possible
IBM computers, I was allowed to develop a concept.

The first BAC system

At that time, the “IBM Series/7” was the only option, and software
called “ECOSS” (Energy Management System) was available for it from
Montpellier, France. When it came to naming the project, the US colleagues
suggested “BA” for Building Automation, and the British corrected this to
“BC” for Building Control. In order to find a compromise, I asked whether
the combination “BAC” might be conceivable. Both sides agreed. Thus, in
1975 I named the supervisory system project “BACS”.

See Fig. 1.

As substations (multiplexers) we used products from Hartmann, Stuttgart.
In 1978, the “slanted 7”, as the computer was nicknamed, was discontinued
and the “slanted 1” (IBM Series/1) was announced as its replacement. In
1979, IBM asked me whether I would take over project management within Fig. 2: 1979 introduction of BACS/1 at the IBM plant Sindelfingen. Note the reference
IBM for the development of a supervisory system on the S/1. So I became to microprocessors.
Abb 2: 1979 Einführung BACS/1 im IBM Werk Sindelfingen. Beachte den Hinweis
an IBM employee. I named the project BACS/1. The software requirements zu Mikroprozessoren.

6 BACnet Europe Journal 44 03/26