Inventors:
Kenneth John Murphy - Henderson NV, US
Linda Murphy - Henderson NV, US
Thomas Bruce Meagher - Houston TX, US
Philip John Agar - Danbury, GB
Ian David Wynne Jones - West Mersea, GB
Gerald Robert Creech - Danbury, GB
International Classification:
G06F 3/00, G05B 19/02
Abstract:
An industrial process control apparatus and method that includes a number of processors and a number of input/output modules. Each processor is connected to a plurality of the input/output modules by a unidirectional command line. Each input/output module is connected to a plurality of the processors by a unidirectional response line. The processors are arranged to issue an identifier request to all of the connected input/output modules and each input/output module is arranged to respond to the identifier request via the respective response line with a response that includes a unique identifier. Such a configuration allows each processor to identify the physical location of each respective input/output module.