FIELD DEVICE MANAGEMENT APPARATUS

• US 20110276955A1
• Filed: 04/28/2011
• Published: 11/10/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 05/07/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Yokogawa Electric Corporation
• Original Assignee: Yokogawa Electric Corporation
• Inventors: Kanokogi, Hiroaki
• Granted Patent: US 8,806,467 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/166
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/44521 Dynamic linking or loading; Link editing at or after load time, e.g. Java class loading
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/465 Distributed object oriented systems remote method invocation [RMI] G06F9/548

Abstract

A field device management apparatus may include a plurality of COM in-process servers, each of which acquires and manages device data related to a corresponding one of field devices, and a launch-program COM in-process server that stores a launch-program, the launch-program activating an instance in each of the plurality of COM in-process servers, the launch-program preventing four different functions from being executed directly by an OS in the plurality of COM in-process servers. The plurality of COM in-process servers may be initialized on the Microsoft Windows operating system to generate COM objects in different memory spaces.

Claims

1. A field device management apparatus comprising:

a plurality of COM in-process servers, each of which acquires and manages device data related to a corresponding one of field devices; and

a launch-program COM in-process server that stores a launch-program, the launch-program activating and closing an instance in each of the plurality of COM in-process servers, the launch-program preventing four different functions from being executed directly by an OS in the plurality of COM in-process servers, and

wherein the plurality of COM in-process servers are initialized on the Microsoft Windows operating system to generate COM objects in different memory spaces.

2. The field device management apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the launch-program prevents a performance of a function “

GetClassObject”

generating a new instance.

3. The field device management apparatus according to claim 2, wherein

if the function “

GetClassObject”

is called for the first time, then the function “

GetClassObject”

is called from a body DLL,

if the function “

GetClassObject”

is called for equal to or more than the second time, then the body DLL is copied to a copy DLL, which has a different name from the body DLL, and the function “

GetClassObject”

is called from the copy DLL.

4. The field device management apparatus according to claim 3, wherein

data of the copy DLL is stored in an array of the instance.

5. The field device management apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

only a function “

CanUnloadNow”

is called at a termination time of the instance.

6. The field device management apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the four different functions are “

GetClassObject”

, “

CanUnloadNow”

, “

RegisterServer” and

“

UnregisterServer”

.

7. The field device management apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the COM objects includes at least one of a global variable and a static variable.

8. A field device management apparatus comprising:

a client server including a client program;

a first COM in-process server that acquires and manages device data related to a first field device, the first COM in-process server including a first COM instance;

a second COM in-process server that acquires and manages device data related to a second field device, the second COM in-process server including a second COM instance; and

a launch-program COM in-process server that stores a launch-program, the launch-program preventing four different functions from being executed in the first and second COM in-process servers, and

wherein the first COM in-process server is initialized on the Microsoft Windows operating system to generate first COM objects in a first memory space in the first COM instance, and the second COM in-process server is initialized on the Microsoft Windows operating system to generate second COM objects in a second memory space in the second COM instance, the first memory space being different from the second memory space.

9. The field device management apparatus according to claim 8, wherein

the launch-program prevents a performance of a function “

GetClassObject”

generating a new instance.

10. The field device management apparatus according to claim 9, wherein

if the client program calls the function “

GetClassObject”

for the first time, then the function “

GetClassObject”

is called from a body DLL,

if the client program calls the function “

GetClassObject”

for equal to or more than the second time, then the body DLL is copied to a copy DLL, which has a different name from the body DLL, and the function “

GetClassObject”

is called from the copy DLL.

11. The field device management apparatus according to claim 10, wherein

data of the copy DLL is stored in an array of the first and second COM instances.

12. The field device management apparatus according to claim 8, wherein

only a function “

CanUnloadNow”

is called at a termination time of the first and second instances.

13. The field device management apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the four different functions are “

GetClassObject”

, “

CanUnloadNow”

, “

RegisterServer” and

“

UnregisterServer”

.

14. The field device management apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the COM objects includes at least one of a global variable and a static variable.

15. A field device management method comprising:

acquiring and managing device data related to a field device;

storing a launch-program, the launch-program preventing four different functions from being executed directly by an OS; and

generating COM objects in different memory spaces.

16. The field device management method according to claim 15, wherein

the launch-program prevents a performance of a function “

GetClassObject”

generating a new instance.

17. The field device management method according to claim 16, wherein

if the function “

GetClassObject”

is called for the first time, then the function “

GetClassObject”

is called from a body DLL,

if the function “

GetClassObject”

is called for equal to or more than the second time, then the body DLL is copied to a copy DLL, which has a different name from the body DLL, and the function “

GetClassObject”

is called from the copy DLL.

18. The field device management method according to claim 15, wherein

only a function “

CanUnloadNow”

is called at a termination time of an instance.

19. The field device management method according to claim 15, wherein the four different functions are “

GetClassObject”

, “

CanUnloadNow”

, “

RegisterServer” and

“

UnregisterServer”

.

20. The field device management method according to claim 15, wherein the COM objects includes at least one of a global variable and a static variable.