DAVID A ORAVETZ
Pharmacy in Pittsburgh, PA

4663704, May 5, 1987

Dec 3, 1984

6/677442

Donald J. Jones - O'Hara Township, Allegheny County PA
Warren A. Edblad - Penn Hills PA
Judith S. Pringle - Saltsburg PA
David M. Oravetz - Aspinwall PA
Joann R. Patelunas - O'Hara Township, Allegheny County PA

Westinghouse Electric Corp. - Pittsburgh PA

G05B 1942, G05B 1101

364188

A distributed processing unit (DPU) or drop which performs process control and data acquisition functions in a distributed processing control system having a data highway linking a plurality of such units. A DPU functional processor accesses the local process I/O interface thereby continually receiving plant information for storage in digital form and subsequent use in the functional processor or for transmission along the data highway. DPU control programs use process values in a transparent fashion, that is without regard to whether these values were obtained through local process I/O interface or via the data highway. The DPU software structure is made up of execution software and support software. The execution software is a collection of data acquisition and process control programs which are developed at an engineer's console drop using a DPU programming language which operates in text and CRT graphic display modes, the latter programming modes allowing system documentation via hard copy graphic display printout. These programs are initiated, performed consecutively, and repeated at specified intervals.