REAL-TIME AUTOMATION DEVICE HAVING A REAL-TIME DATABUS

摘要

The process control unit according to the invention – for example a programmable logic controller or PLC – is configured to execute a plurality of control processes, wherein at least one first control process executed on the process control unit is configured, according to the invention, such that for the execution thereof there is no provision for direct exchange of process variables with a second control process, but rather this exchange takes place via an interposed association module. An association specification is used to ascertain the control process or control processes to which the process variable needs to be handed over. A particular advantage of the invention can be seen in the increased flexibility in the exchange of process variables, which now takes place in the individual control processes by means of an association module as a departure from "logical wiring" frozen by programming. Restarts of the process control unit and associated production losses advantageously become unnecessary. Additional resources in the process control unit or in an engineering system can be reduced or avoided. The decreased complexity means that the control systems and engineering systems are developed more easily and hence also more quickly.