Distributed control system and semiconductor inspection apparatus including same

A distributed control system comprising a tree topology network or a daisy-chain network including a communication parent station, communication child stations, and a plurality of communication paths among the communication parent station and the communication child stations,

• wherein the communication parent station and the communication child stations include a scheduling unit that controls a transfer cycle that is temporal intervals of data transfer,
• the scheduling unit sets the transfer cycle that is a fastest out of a plurality of the data as a reference cycle,
• counts a number of times each time the reference cycle elapses, and imparts a value of the number of times to the reference cycle as a cycle number,
• when the cycle number reaches an optional number, the number of times is returned to an initial value, which makes one cycle of transfer control, and the transfer control is repeatedly executed, and
• for a timing of the reference cycle at which the data is transferred, the scheduling unit performs communication band control by executing scheduling processing to define the cycle number to which the reference cycle corresponds, on a basis of predetermined information corresponding to the data,
• wherein the scheduling unit of the communication parent station reads the predetermined information from a memory unit while the communication parent station transmits an instruction for starting the scheduling processing to the communication child stations via at least one of the plurality of communication paths, and wherein:
• the scheduling unit includes an address queue unit,
• the scheduling processing stores an address of the data in the address queue unit corresponding to the cycle number, and
• when the address is stored in the address queue unit,
• the scheduling unit selects the address queue unit in which the address is stored by using a write enable that is generated based on the predetermined information, and
• the scheduling unit performs the transfer control by reading the address stored in the corresponding address queue unit based on an update of the cycle number.

A distributed control system comprising a tree topology network or a daisy-chain network including a communication parent station, communication child stations, and a plurality of communication paths among the communication parent station and the communication child stations,

• wherein the communication parent station and the communication child stations include a scheduling unit that controls a transfer cycle that is temporal intervals of data transfer,
• the scheduling unit sets the transfer cycle that is a fastest out of a plurality of the data as a reference cycle,
• counts a number of times each time the reference cycle elapses, and imparts a value of the number of times to the reference cycle as a cycle number,
• when the cycle number reaches an optional number, the number of times is returned to an initial value, which makes one cycle of transfer control, and the transfer control is repeatedly executed, and
• for a timing of the reference cycle at which the data is transferred, the scheduling unit performs communication band control by executing scheduling processing to define the cycle number to which the reference cycle corresponds, on a basis of predetermined information corresponding to the data,
• wherein the scheduling unit of the communication parent station reads the predetermined information from a memory unit while the communication parent station transmits an instruction for starting the scheduling processing to the communication child stations via at least one of the plurality of communication paths.