Remote downloading and uploading of motion control program information to and from a motion control I/O module in a programmable controller

A programmable controller processor for initiating block transfers of information to a I/O module in response to block transfer commands from two different sources, the programmable controller comprising:

• means responsive to a ladder language control program instruction including a block transfer command for generating a first entry in a queue specifying the location of the block transfer data, the system-mapped I/O address of the I/O module and the requested number of words of block transfer data;
• means responsive to the first entry in the queue for executing the block transfer of data in cooperation with the I/O module;
• means responsive to a network message including a block transfer command for generating a second entry in the queue specifying the location of the block transfer data, the system-mapped I/O address of the I/O module and the requested number of words of block transfer data;
• and
• wherein the means responsive to the first entry in the queue is further responsive to the second entry in the queue for executing a second block transfer in cooperation with the I/O module.

A method of uploading and downloading program information between a remote programming terminal and an I/O module through a programmable controller system processor communicating with the I/O module, the method comprising:

• storing a file of program information as a single file for purposes of executing a program to control a controlled device;
• and
• converting received blocks of information to the single file when downloading the file of program information from the remote programming terminal;
• converting the single file to blocks of information when uploading the file of program information to the remote programming terminal;
• storing the blocks of information for communication to or from the remote programming terminal through the programmable controller system processor;
• and
• responding to commands in blocks of information received from the remote programming terminal through the programmable controller system processor for communicating the file of program information as a sequence of blocks of program information.