Network interface for industrial controller providing application programmer interface

摘要

A multi-port, multi-network interface allows desktop-type computers to be used in industrial control environments employing time critical network communications over multiple networks. A run-time program on the multi-network interface handles network protocol matters while interfacing two application programs through the mechanism of an API of the operating system of the desktop computer. The run-time program allows for different devices on different networks to be collected as a single logical entity through the use of a view attribute stored in a memory of the multi-network interface.