Integrating factory automation: a new approach

An alternative approach to multilevel communications in industrial plants is described. It is noted that if a systems engineer could, in a high-level language, manipulate the hardware without going through an operating system, he/she would have direct control of the lowest and most primitive level of a computer in terms of ones and zeros. A software development environment that provides for this ability is discussed. Some of the different interfaces created by using this technology are described. The author introduces a communication technology call Nested Cellular Expansion (NCE) which is based on a concept of universal memory space, where all information is immediately available to everyone who is connected to the system, independent of their level. NCE eliminates various layers of communication found in the traditional pyramid structure of communication