A PROFIBUS GSD file (Generic Station Description) is a standardised ASCII file supplied by the device vendor; it contains the device characteristics (vendor, ident_number, supported baud rates, modules, parameters) needed to integrate it in the PLC project.
True
PROFIBUS GSDs are plain ASCII key=value text files, not XML; PROFINET uses GSDML in XML, but classic PROFIBUS keeps the human-readable text format. Key sections include General (Vendor_Name, Ident_Number, Hardware_Release), DP-Slave (Modular/Compact, Modules, User_Prm_Data, Diag_Text) and DP-Master (Max_Slaves, capabilities). The engineering tool (STEP 7, TIA Portal, SIMATIC Manager) imports the file once into its hardware catalogue and then offers the device for use in any project.
Always download the GSD from the vendor's official site rather than reusing an old project copy: vendors patch Ident_Number or module definitions and a stale GSD silently breaks Set_Prm at run time.
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