Drop in a fully redundant, workstation-based distributed processing control system

摘要

A distributed process control system drop for controlling the operation of an industrial process includes a first workstation or personal computer running industrial continuous process control software on an open architecture operating system and operable to analyze input information provided from the industrial process according to a predetermined set of rules and generate output information provided to the industrial process to control the operation thereof. A second workstation or personal computer connected with the first workstation via a non vendor-specific, international standards-based data highway normally runs in a backup mode and also runs the industrial process control software on an open architecture operating system to perform the same analysis as the first workstation and generate backup output information. A monitoring function associated with the second workstation detects a failure in the first workstation and transfers control of the industrial process to the second workstation upon first workstation failure. Both the first and second workstations include non-proprietary software suites and each suite includes individual software packages operable to permit personnel associated with the industrial process to interface with the industrial process in a selected manner through the first and second workstations.