PI Overview

Traditionally, one of the most significant components of the PI Server is its process data historian, the PI Data Archive. The archive is a time-series database designed and optimised to quickly receive, store and retrieve time-oriented manufacturing data. The database efficiently stores numerical and string data, and can accommodate both small and large quantities of data for extended periods. Although the archive is really just one piece of a PI System, many customers selected PI because of the quality of the process historian.

The PI Data Historian from OSI Software is able to collect data from distributed nodes where time-stamped plant data may even be buffered in the event of communication being lost with PI. The DM_OSI_PI driver is built using OSI Software's PIAPI Software Development Kit. It also makes use of the OSI Bufserv infrastructure to provide local buffering of updates to prevent data loss during periods of communication disruption between iDX and the PI Data Historian