APPARATUS AND METHODS TO COMMUNICATIVELY COUPLE FIELD DEVICES TO CONTROLLERS IN PROCESS CONTROL SYSTEM

摘要

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an apparatus and methods to communicatively couple field devices to controllers in a process control system.SOLUTION: An apparatus includes a first interface configured to receive first information from a field device using a first communication protocol. The apparatus also includes a communication processor communicatively coupled to the first interface and configured to encode the first information for communication via a bus using a second communication protocol. In addition, the apparatus includes a second interface communicatively coupled to the communication processor and the bus and configured to communicate the first information via the bus using the second communication protocol. The bus is configured to use the second communication protocol to communicate second information associated with another field device.