Method of controlling a multi-output physical process.

摘要

Disclosed is a method of controlling a multi-output physical process with a vertically distributed process controller having interrupt data transfer. The process controller includes a host digital computer operating in a multi-tasking environment digital computer, and having a plurality of communications ports. Each of the communications ports is associated with a microprocessor and memory. According to the disclosed invention a process control application program is running in the digital computer, while the sensing and digitizing of at least one of the process physical outputs is being carried out in conjunction with one of the communications ports. The digitized output of the physical process is stored in the memory and an interrupt request is generated by the communications port corresponding to the process physical output. The host digital computer services an interrupt routine to input the contents of the communications port memory means to the digital computer. After inputting the value of the variable, the process control task or thread resumes its process control application with a new value of the physical process variable. This new value is then used to generate a process control output corresponding to the newly inputted process physical output. This new output is transmitted from the digital computer as an input to an effector of the controlled physical process.