Austin, TX, August 14, 2003: HART® Communication Foundation and SlickEdit® Inc. today announce that the Visual SlickEdit code editor will be the basis of the Foundation's new Device Description Integrated Development Environment (DD-IDE) used by the consortium's member companies. The new DD-IDE will provide configuration templates for the 12 million plus HART-compatible process plant instrumentation devices in use worldwide and more than 70% of the intelligent process instrumentation devices being sold each year. This decision by HART Communication Foundation (HCF) is a testament to the strong business value added by Visual SlickEdit, the most comprehensive and flexible code editor available.

Visual SlickEdit's rich features, combined with its multi-platform, multi-language support, will enable HCF members to increase productivity while reducing costs. Visual SlickEdit provides the same look and feel across Windows, Linux, and Unix platforms and over 40 programming languages, making it easy for development teams to program on different platforms using the same code editor.

Wally Pratt, chief engineer for the HART Communication Foundation, commented, "HART uses a specialized language for modeling process instruments called Device Description Language (DDL). The DDL has proven to be very robust and stable over the past 10 years and soon it will become an international standard of the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). There are millions of lines of DDL code for hundreds of types of different instruments."

Pratt continued, "The new DD-IDE powered by the industry-leading Visual SlickEdit code editor provides our members with a powerful tool suite to efficiently develop, test, maintain, and support the Electronic Device Descriptions for their products. Preliminary release beta versions of the new DD-IDE are being tested by HCF members with the final release planned for December."

The HCF chose Visual SlickEdit for its rich set of coding tools and its customizability from a language perspective. The ability of Visual SlickEdit to function the same way on multiple platforms, including both Linux and Windows, was a key factor in the Foundation's decision. HCF members will use the Visual SlickEdit-based IDE to create and maintain templates for configuring and interacting with their HART-enabled intelligent instrumentation products. Bob Bradley, vice president of Sales and Business Development at SlickEdit, added, "We are excited that HCF chose Visual SlickEdit as the framework for their DD-IDE. Their selection of Visual SlickEdit demonstrates that the intelligent process automation industry, like many other vertical industries, can benefit from an integrated editor and differencing/merge tool. The new DD-IDE will enable HCF members to reap the development productivity benefits that a full-featured multi-platform editor provides."

The HCF is an international consortium of 150 member companies, including multinational automation suppliers ABB, Endress+Hauser, Emerson Process Management, Fuji, Honeywell, Invensys, Rockwell Automation, Siemens, Toshiba, Yokogawa and others who use the HART Protocol in their process instrumentation products.