Dual microprocessor intelligent programmable process control system

摘要

An intelligent programmable process control system for controlling industrial processing and manufacturing equipment and the like utilizes a unique system of cooperating multiple microprocessors. A multi-bit microprocessor is utilized for controlling the analog portion of the processing equipment, and a single-bit microprocessor is utilized for sequencing. The control processor has overall supervisory control. An arbitration circuit for resolving simultaneous or phased access to memory by the two microprocessors is provided. In addition, a circuit is provided for accomplishing parallel I/O, again accessible by both microprocessors. In one embodiment, means for linking arithmetic functions and non-arithmetic (logic) functions within a boolean-type instruction set is provided.