Portable computer in a process control environment

A portable computer for use in a process control system having a host system and a plurality of process control devices disposed within the process control system externally to the portable computer, the portable computer comprising:

• a housing adapted for hand-held operation;
• a processing unit disposed within the housing;
• a computer readable memory disposed within the housing and coupled to the processing unit;
• a display disposed within the housing and coupled to the processing unit;
• a keypad disposed within the housing and coupled to the processing unit;
• a radio frequency transceiver disposed within the housing and coupled to the processing unit, wherein the radio frequency transceiver is adapted to communicate with the host system;
• a first software routine stored in the computer readable memory and adapted to be executed by the processing unit that processes a user input received from the keypad and sends a request to the host system requesting a change to be made with respect to one or more of the plurality of process control devices via the radio frequency transceiver;
• a second software routine stored on the host system that receives the request from the first software routine and in response to the request generates a command to cause the change with respect to the one or more of the plurality of process control devices;
• and
• a third software routine stored in the computer readable memory and adapted to be executed by the processing unit that receives process information that is generated by one or more of the plurality of process control devices during operation of a process and that is sent from the host system in response to the request via the radio frequency transceiver and displays the received process information via the display.

A hand-held computer for interfacing with a process control system that has a plurality of process control devices disposed within a process externally to the hand-held computer, the hand-held computer comprising:

• a housing adapted for hand-held operation;
• a processor disposed within the housing;
• a computer readable memory disposed within the housing and coupled to the processor;
• an electronic display disposed within the housing and coupled to the processor;
• a keypad disposed within the housing and coupled to the processing unit;
• a transceiver disposed within the housing and communicatively coupled to the processing unit, wherein the transceiver is adapted to communicate with a remotely situated processor to receive process information generated by one or more of the plurality of process control devices during operation of a process;
• a first software routine stored in the computer readable memory and adapted to be executed by the processor that enables a user to send a request to the process control system requesting a change to be made to with respect to one or more of the plurality of process control devices;
• and
• a second software routine stored on the process control system that receives the request from the first software routine and in response to the request generates a command to cause the change with respect to the one or more of the plurality of process control devices.