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Field device

  • US 10,496,389 B2
  • Filed: 08/01/2016
  • Issued: 12/03/2019
  • Est. Priority Date: 08/03/2015
  • Status: Active Grant
First Claim
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1. A field device for connection to a programmable logic controller (PLC), the field device having hardware, and the hardware comprising:

  • a processing circuitry,a memory, anda data interface for communication with the PLC,wherein the field device is configured to receive compatibility information from the PLC;

    wherein a firmware having a plurality of functions for operating the field device is stored in the memory; and

    wherein the field device determines which functions of the firmware of the field device are known to the PLC using the compatibility information and the processing circuitry is configured to release only a subset of the functions of the firmware that is known to the PLC for execution during an operation of the field device without booting based on checking the received compatibility information one-by-one against a predetermined association of each of the plurality of the functions and a firmware version number or date that allows release of the function respectively, and preclude functions, other than the subset of the functions, that currently reside on the field device from execution, based on the compatibility information to produce a behavior of the field device which is configured to adapt to the compatibility information and adopt a function and behavior of the field device with an older version of the firmware to conform to the current programming of the PLC, when the compatibility information does not require all of the functions of the firmware, and wherein the processing circuitry is configured, if none of the plurality of functions is suitable to produce the behavior of the field device configured to adapt to the compatibility information, to download a further firmware and to continue the operation of the field device with the further firmware by releasing further functions of the further firmware for execution simultaneously.

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