The Unix system user's manual: AT&T Prentice-Hall (1986) £32.05, pp 646

Abstract

This paper presents an overall view of the architecture and design of a programmable logic controller (PLC). The main objectives of the work are to design, develop, and implement a versatile PLC processor module (PLCPM) based on an industrial open bus architecture called VMEbus (IEEE 1014 Versa Module Euro-standard). The controller is inserted inside the VME crate and controls the industrial process via input and output modules that reside in the crate.The PLCPM is designed to be an intelligent module through the use of a Motorola MC68000 CPU. A method of distributed arbitration protocol, based on an algorithmic state-machine design approach, is added to the design of this module. This facility makes PLCPM suitable to work inside a VMEbus environment. The PLCPM therefore becomes adequate for use in multiprocessing PLC systems.The controller uses a host personal computer (IBM-PC) as a versatile and indispensable system component for process development, monitoring, control and supervision. Software and firmware programs are developed and written for both host-PC and PLCPM using standard C-language and 68000 assembly language, respectively. This results in a sequential control algorithm for the PLCPM and windowing user interface for the host-PC. Ladder diagram programming language is supported by this user interface.