Microcomputer process operating systems

• Main Author: Martlew, P. J.
• Published: Swansea University 1991
• Subjects: 660.2832
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.638017

A chemical process plant control software support system aimed at simplifying the task of designing and implementing complete digital computer chemical plant control systems was designed, and partially implemented on an 8-bit microcomputer. The bulk of the system (excluding the program development environment) was designed and fully specified, as was the application programming language. The system was designed with the aim of reducing the number of faults present in a finished application system. Consequently ease of use, conceptual simplicity, flexibility and reliability were its main design goals. The system was broken into two major components. These were the software support system and the application programming system. The software support system provided a mechanism to fully configure the system structure to match that of the controlled plant, a comprehensive menu driven operator interface, and a run-time execution control environment. The application programming system comprised a module interface type application language with message based inter-module communication and a very high level event and data interface to the controlled system. The application programming language compiler and editor were not implemented, due to the constraints imposed by project timescales. The attached appendices contain full details of the design and implementation work carried out, whilst the thesis itself illustrates the more general issues which underlie the system design.