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Industrial controller with flexible data structures

  • US 6,088,624 A
  • Filed: 12/09/1996
  • Issued: 07/11/2000
  • Est. Priority Date: 12/09/1996
  • Status: Expired due to Term
First Claim
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1. A method of operating an industrial controller executing a control program and having a memory containing an I/O table storing data used and generated by the control program, the industrial controller further having a plurality of connected I/O devices exchanging data with the I/O table of the industrial controller, the method comprising the steps of:

  • (a) receiving at the controller software templates associated with each I/O device, each software template defining data elements needed to exchange data between its associated I/O device and the industrial controller, the software template indicating;

    (i) predetermined data types denoting the size of data of the data element and(ii) a predetermined order indicating the order in which the data elements will be transmitted to the industrial controller;

    (b) based on the software template, allocating at the industrial controller a portion of the I/O table of the industrial controller to the data elements of each I/O device according to the software template, the portion having a starting physical address in the I/O table and a size determined from the software template;

    (c) preparing a symbol list of symbols unique to and identifiable to each I/O device, each symbol associated by the symbol list with the starting physical address for a data element of the I/O device per the software template; and

    (d) providing symbols of the symbol list to a programmer for preparation of a control program;

    (e) compiling the control program by replacing the symbols used in the control program with the physical addresses deduced from the symbol list.

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