Real time, fail safe process control system and method

Abstract From the Canadian patent

Abstract, A real time control system is disclosed for controlling the sequential execution of scheduled operations such as in process control or broadcast scheduling applications. The system uses a fail safe feature characterized as a sender/listener architecture. An external clock input to the sender and the listener assures synchronous sequential stepping through identical schedules stored in each processor. Under normal operation, the sender processor controls the execution of events as they are sent from a host computer connected to the system. Unscheduled events or errors are processed by being added to the schedule in real time for both the sender and listener processors. The listener …