Patent · US Expired

Special function control system for a dual microprocessor programmable process control system

US4215399A · kind A · utility

32Cited by
8References
26Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateAug 24, 1978
Grant dateJul 29, 1980
Priority date
Expiry dateAug 24, 1998

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG05B2219/15127
  • WIPO fieldControl
  • WIPO sectorInstruments

Abstract

An intelligent programmable process control system including a first microprocessor which scans and executes a sequence of boolean logic functions and a second microprocessor which performs complex operations including arithmetic computations beyond the capabilities of the first microprocessor. The first microprocessor transmits interrupt requests to the second microprocessor when a scanned sequence instruction requires complex operations to be performed. First flag bit register indicates to the first microprocessor that a requested operation has been queued-up. Second flag bit register indicates to the first microprocessor that the requested operation has been completed. When the first microprocessor requires complex operations, it checks the state of a respective first flag bit register to determine whether the complex operation has already been queued-up and if so, checks the state of a respective second flag bit register to determine whether the queued-up function has been completed by the second microprocessor. If the complex operation has been queued-up and the second flag bit indicates that the operation has not been completed, the first microprocessor continues scanning and…

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.