US 6,272,388 B1 · Program structure and method for industrial control

Abstract

A table of sequential call statements is used to organize various program portions of the operating system of an industrial controller. This organizing structure allows troubleshooting of individual program portions of the operating system as are intimately related to the controlled process and the control hardware on an individual basis without the need to generate dummy programs or “stubs” to replace the unexecuted program portions. Those program portions not being executed have their call instructions replaced by NOP instructions. The call table may be edited to provide for different operating modes of the industrial controller without the need for mode test flags otherwise dispersed within the program code of the operating system.

Claims7

Dependent claims

An industrial control system comprising:

a general purpose electronic computer operating to execute standard computer instructions;
a program executed by the electronic computer including:
(a) a sequentially executed program portion having:
(i) a call table containing a plurality of call instructions to addresses of other program portions;
(ii) a terminating instruction at the end of the plurality of call instructions causing an indefinite repeated execution of the call table;
(b) a plurality of periodically executed program portions at the addresses having:
(i) instructions providing industrial control functions;
(ii) a terminating instruction at the end of the periodically executed portions causing a return from a call;
whereby the periodically executed portions of the program are repeatedly executed in the order of the call table for predictable real time control.

6 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Program structure and method for industrial control

Life of this patent

Program structure and method for industrial control

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims7