Microprocessor Architecture for Discrete Manufacturing Control, Part II: Identification of System Requirements

This paper presents an analysis of the computer requirements for the lowest level computer in a hierarchical control structure. The objective of the paper is to identify those points of discrete manufacturing process control which require special consideration and to give the impact of these requirements on the computer architecture. The areas which are investigated are the instruction set, input/output system, interrupt structure, and computer-to-computer communications.