Programmable electronic emergency shutdown and fire and gas protection systems are widely used to reduce the risks of adverse events to acceptable levels. The debate about the integrity of different system architectures has been going on since they were first introduced in the 1970s. The current debate about the trend towards integration of safety and control functionality is just as passionate! Some will find cause to argue against integration on the grounds that the high levels of integrity demanded by the industry are not met. This author argues that, by using competent/certified development engineers responding to input from experienced/certified systems architects, the new embedded 'safety and control' architecture can outperform traditional safety technologies.
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