MODULE-1 Real Time System(18EC823)

Introduction to Real –Time Systems

Module-1
Introduction to Real-Time Systems: Historical background, Elements of a Computer Control
System, RTS- Definition, Classification of Real-time Systems, Time Constraints, Classification
of Programs.
Concepts of Computer Control: Introduction, Sequence Control, Loop Control, Supervisory
Control, Centralized Computer Control, Hierarchical Systems.

Historical Background

The earliest proposal to use a computer operating in real time as part of a control system
was made in a paper by Brown and Campbell in 1950. It shows a computer in both the feedback
and feed forward loops. The diagram is shown below:

The first digital Computers developed specifically for real time control were for airborne
operation, and in 1954 a digitrac digital computer was successfully used to provide an automatic
flight and weapons control system. The application of digital computers to industrial control
began in the late 1950s.

The first industrial installation of a computer system was in September 1958. When the
Louisiana Power and Light Company installed a Day Storm Computer system for plant
monitoring at their power station in sterling, Louisiana.

The first industrial Computer Control installation was made by the Texaco Company who
installed an RW-300 (Ramo -Wooldridge Company) system at their Port Arthur refinery in
Texas.

During 1957-8 the Monsanto Chemical Company, in co-operation with the Ramo-
Wooldridge company, studied the possibility of using computer control and in October 1958
decided to implement a scheme on the ammonia plant at luling, Louisiana.

The same system was installed by the B.F. Goodrich Company on their acrylanite plant at
Calvert City, Kentucky, in 1959-60.
 The first direct digital control (DDC) computer system was the Ferranti Argus 200
system installed in November 1962 at the ICI ammonia – soda plant at Fleetwood Lancashire.

The computers used in the early 1960s combined magnetic core memories and drum stores, the
drum eventually giving way to hard disk drives. They included the General Electric 4000 series,
IBM 1800, CDC 1700, Foxboro Fox 1 and 1A, the SDS and Xerox SIGMA Series, Ferranti
Argus and Elliot Automation 900 series.

The attempt to resolve some of the problems of the early machines led to an increase in the cost
of systems. The consequence of the generation of further problems particularly in the
development of the software. The increase in the size of the programs meant that not all the code
could be stored in core memory; provision to be made for the swapping of code between the
drum memory and core. The solution appeared to lie in the development general purpose real-
time operating systems and high –level languages.

In the late 1960s real time operating system were developed and various PROCESS FORTRAN
Compilers made their appearance. The problems and the costs involved in attempting to do
everything in one computer led users to retreat to smaller system for which the newly developing
minicomputer (DEC PDP-8, PDP-11, Data General Nova, Honey well 316 etc.) was to prove
ideally suited.
 Elements Of A Computer Control System:

 Consider the hot- air blower as an example to illustrate the various operations of a
computer control system. The following section explains about the operations of hot-air
blower.
 A centrifugal fan blows air over a heating element and into a tube
 A thermostat is used to detect the temperature
 The position of the air-inlet cover to the fan is adjusted by a reversible DC
motor(constant speed)
 A potentiometer is attached to the air-inlet cover
 Two 8-switches are used to detect when the cover is fully open or fully closed
 The operator is provided with a panel from which the control system can be switched
from automatic to manual control panel. Lights indicate: Fan ON, Heater ON, Cover
fully-open, Cover fully-closed, Auto/Manual status.
 The information is available from the plant instrument in the following two forms:
– Analog signals: Air Temp., Fan-inlet cover position.

– Digital signals: Fan-inlet cover position (Fully-open, Fully-closed)

– Status signals: Auto/Manual, Fan motor ON, Heater ON

  The operation of this simple plant using a computer requires a computer software be
provided to support monitoring, control and actuation of the plant.
 Monitoring involves obtaining information about the current state of the plant
 Control involves the digital equivalent of continuous feedback control for the control of
temperature. And for position of fan inlet cover.
 Actuation involves provision of a voltage propositional to the demanded heat output to
drive the heater control
The monitoring and actuation tasks involves range of interface devices including ADCs ,DACs
,digital input and digital output lines and pulse generators.
Generalized Computer System:

 Interface devices are represented as input output devices as shown in figure

 Input devices are devices which transmit information to the computer
 Each of the various types of devices will require software to operate it and this software
is represents as input and output tasks.

Generalized Computer Control System showing hardware and software interface

o The input devices and input software gather the information needed to create an input
image of the plant. The input image is a snapshot of the status of the plant. If external
information is in analog form the process of obtaining the snapshot will involve
digitization and sampling.
 o Output image represents the current set of outputs generated by the control
calculations. The output image will be updated periodically by the control tasks.
Output task conveys data contained in output image to the plant.
o The control software within the computer can thus be considered as operating on
input image of the plant to produce the output image.
o The controller receives a set point request from the programmer and compares it to a
measured feedback. The difference between the set point and feedback is called the
error ε. The job of the controller is to eliminate the error
o Simplified block diagram of continuous feedback control system.
o Where r(t) is set point, c(t) is controlled variable
o Error=e(t)=r(t) - c(t)
o m (t) is manipulated variable.

o Simplified block diagram of a sampled feedback control system is shown in below figure.
c(nT),r(nT),e(nT),u(nT) are sampled values of c(t),r(t),e(t),u(t) at sample times nT where n is
an integer and T is the sampling interval.
Communication VDU Keyboard LAN Printer
devices

Communication
interface

Controller tasks Communication

tasks

Input image Output image

Input tasks Output tasks

Input devices Output devices

Process Process Process Process Plant

Real Time Systems –Definition:
“A real-time system is the one whose output is not only dependent on the input of the system but
also depends on the timeliness of the system”.
OR

“Any system in which the time at which the output is produced is significant. This is usually
because the input corresponds to some movement in the physical world, and the output has to
relate to that some movement. The lag from input time to output time must be sufficiently small
for acceptable timeliness”.
OR
“Real-Time systems are those which must produce correct responses within a definite time limit.
Should computer responses exceed these time bounds then performance degradation and/or
malfunction results”.
OR
Real-Time Program: “A program for which the correctness of operation depends both on the
logical results of the computation and at which the results are produced”.

Classification of Real-Time Systems:

RTS are classified based on the tasks into the following three categories:
 Clock- based tasks (cyclic, periodic)
 Event –based tasks(aperiodic)
 Interactive systems

Clock- based tasks (cyclic, periodic):

 Clock – based tasks are typically referred to as cyclic or periodic tasks where the terms
can imply either that the task is to run once per time period T (or cycle time T), or is to
run at exactly T unit intervals.
 Synchronization between the external processes and internal actions (tasks) carried out by
the computer may be defined in terms of the passage of time, or the actual time of day, in
which case the system is said to be “Clock-based system”.
 Time constants may be measured in hours (chemical processes) or milliseconds (for
aircraft system).
 The completion of the operations within the specified time is dependent on the number of
operations to be performed and the speed of the computer.
 Synchronization is usually obtained by adding a clock to the computer system, and using
a signal from this clock to interrupt the operation of the computer at predetermined fixed
time interval.
  For example in process plant operation, the computer may carry out the plant input, plant
output and control tasks in response to the clock interrupt or, if the clock interrupt has
been set at a faster rate than the sampling rate, it may count each interrupt until it is time
to run the tasks.
 In larger system the tasks may be subdivided into groups for controlling different parts of
the plant and these may need to run a different sampling rate.
 A tasks or process comprises some code, its associated data and a control block data
structure which the operating system uses to define and manipulate the task.

EVENT – BASED TASKS (APERIODIC):

 Synchronization between the external processes and internal actions (tasks) carried out by
the computer may be defined in terms of events, and the system is said to be “Event-
based system”.

 Actions are to be performed not at particular times or time intervals but in response to
some event .The system must respond within a given max. Time to a particular event.

 Events occur at non-deterministic intervals and event-based tasks are referred to as “a -

periodic” task.

 Examples: Turning off a pump or closing a value when the level of a liquid in a tank
reaches a predetermined valve; or switching a motor off in response to the closure of a
micro switch indicating that some desired position has been reached. Event based
systems are also used extensively to indicate alarm conditions and initiate alarm actions

INTERACTIVE SYSTEM:
 If the relationship between the actions in the computer and the system is much more
loosely defined, then the system is said to be “interactive system”.

 They represent the largest class of RTSs such as automatic bank tellers, reservation
systems for hotels, airlines and car rental……etc.

 The real-time requirement is usually expressed in terms such as “the average response
time must not exceed some predetermined time”.

 Example: an automatic bank teller system might require an average response time not
exceeding 20 sec.
 An interactive system responds at a time determined by internal state of the computer
without reference to the external environment.
Timing Constraints
Based on timing constraints real-time tasks are classified into two types

 Hard real-time
 Soft real time

Hard real-time system: these are systems that must satisfy the deadlines on each and every
occasion

Typical example of a hard real-time control system is the temperature control loop of the hot-air
blower system described below figure. In control terms, the temperature loop is a sampled data
system. Sampling interval Ts is determined by suitable control algorithm.

the input value must be read, the control calculation carried out and the output value calculated
within this specified time , and the output value sent to the heater drive and then to plant.

Same system can be made as event-based tasks, if over temperature is detected, the heater should
be off within 7 seconds if sampling time interval is 10sec.

Soft real-time:-these are systems for which an occasional failure to meet a deadline does not
comprise the correctness of the system

An automatic bank teller provides an example of a system with a soft time constraint. A typical
system is event initiated in that it is started by the customer placing their card in the machine.
The time constraint on the machine responding will be specified in terms of an average response
time of, say, 10 seconds, with the average being measured over a 24 hour period.

Mathematical Modeling of Time Constraints:

Classification of Programs:
A real-time program is defined as a program for which the correctness of operation depends on
the logical results of the computation and the time at which the results are produced.
In general there are three types of programming:

1. Sequential:
 Actions are ordered as a time sequence, the program behavior depends only on the
effects of the individual actions and their order.

 Verification, therefore, requires two kinds of argument:

1. That a particular statement defines a stated action
2. That the various program structures produce a stated sequence of
Events.
2. Multi-tasking:

 Actions are not necessarily disjoint in time, it may be necessary for several actions to be
performed in parallel.

 Verification requires the application of arguments for sequential programs with some
additions. The task (processes) can be verified separately only if the constituent variables
of each task (process) are distinct.

 If the variables are shared, the potential concurrency makes the effect of the program
unpredictable (and hence not capable of verification) unless there is some further rule that
governs the sequencing of the several actions of the tasks.

3. Real-Time:
 Actions are not necessarily disjoint in time, and the sequence of some of program actions
is not determined by the designer but the environment (by events occurring in the outside
world which occur in real-time and without reference to the internal operations of the
computer).

 A real-time program can still be divided into a number of tasks but communication
between the tasks cannot necessarily wait for a synchronization signal: the environment
task cannot be delayed.

 The actual time taken by an action is an essential factor in the process of verification. We
shall assume that we are concerned with real-time software and references to sequential
and multi-tasking programs should be taken to imply that the program is real time. Non-
real-time programs will be referred to as standard program.
 Concepts of Computers Control

Introduction
 Computers are now used in so many different ways that we could take it up by simply
describing various applications.
 The basic features of computer control systems are illustrated in the following sections
using examples drawn from industrial process control.
 In this field applications are typically classified under the following headings:
o Batch
o Continuous
o Laboratory (or test)

Batch:
 In this process, sequences of operations are carried out to produce a product – the
BATCH and then the sequence is repeated to produce further batch products.
 The specification of the product can be varied between the run.
 A typical example of batch production is rolling of sheet steel- here an ingot(mass of
molten metal) is passed through the rolling mill to produce a particular gauge of steel,
next ingot may be either of a different composition or rolled to a different thickness and
hence will require different settings of the rolling mill.
 Two important measures in batch production are:
1. Set-up time: (change over time) Time taken to prepare the equipment for the next
production batch, this is the wasted time in that no output is being produced.
2. Operation time: Time taken to produce the product .
The ratio between the operations time and set-up time determines the suitable batch size.

Continuous:

 The term continuous is used for systems in which production is maintained for long
periods of time without interruption
 The example for continuous system is the catalytic cracking of oil in which the crude oil
is separated to get different products.
 Here specifications can be changed without halting the process.
 A problem which occurs in continuous processes is that during change-over from one
specification to another, the output of the plant is not within the product tolerance and the
process must be started from the beginning.
 Hence change over should be made as accurately, quickly and smoothly as possible.

Laboratory systems:
 Operator–initiated type in that the computer is used to control some complex
experimental test or some complex equipment used for routine testing.
 Typical example is testing of an audiometer-a device used to test hearing. The audiometer
has to produce sound levels at different frequencies; this is a complex process because
 actual level produced is a function of frequency since sensitivity of the human ear varies
with frequency. Each audiometer has to be tested against a sound level meter and a test
certificate is produced. This is done by using a sound level meter connected to a
computer and using the output from the computer to drive the audiometer through its
frequency range. The results printed out from the test computer provide the test
certificate.

The activities being carried out by a computer, in a RTS, will include the following:
o Data acquisition.
o Sequence control.
o Direct digital control (DDC).
o Supervisory control (SC).
o Data analysis.
o Data storage.
o Human – computer interface (HCI)

The objectives of using a computer in a RTS will include the following:

o Efficiency of operation
o Ease of operation.
o Safety.
o Improved products
o Reduction in waste.
o Reduced environmental impact.
o Reduction in direct labour

Sequence control
 Sequence control occurs predominately in batch process.
 Sequence control systems are widely used in the food processing and chemical industries.
 A chemical is produced by the reaction of two other chemicals at a specified temperature.
The chemicals are mixed together in a sealed vessel (the reactor) and the temperature of
the reaction is controlled by feeding hot or cold water through the water jacket which
surrounds the vessel.
 The water flow is controlled by adjusting valves C and D. The flow of material into and
out of the vessel is regulated by the valves A, Band E. The temperature of the contents of
the vessel and the pressure in the vessel are monitored.
 The procedures for simple reactor vessel as shown in fig 2.1 are:
1. Open valve A.
2. Check the level of chemical 1.
3. Start the stirrer to mix the chemical reactor.
4. Repeat steps 1 and 2 with valve B.
5. Switch ON the PID controller.
6. Monitor the reaction temp, when it reaches the set-point, start a timer.
7. When the timer indicates that the reaction is complete, switch OFF the controller
and open valve C to cool down the reactor contents. Switch OFF the stirrer.
8. Monitor the temp, when the contents have cooled, open valve E to remove the
product from the reactor.
Typical reactor vessel for this purpose is illustrated in the below figure

 All the above actions and timings are based on software, for a large chemical plant, such
sequences can become lengthy and complicated to ensure efficient operating; several
sequences take place in parallel.
 Below Figure shows how sequences can be carried out in parallel.

  In this process, two reactor vessels (R1 and R2) are used alternatively, so that the
processes of preparing for next batch production and cleaning up after the production can
be carried out in parallel.
 Assuming R1 has filled with the mixture and the catalyst and the reaction is in progress.
At the same time vessel R2 will be cleaned-the wash down sequence – and the next batch
of raw material will be measured and mixed in the mixing tank.
 In parallel the previous batch will be thinned down and transferred to the appropriate
storage tank and if any change in the composition is required, the thin down tank will be
cleaned.
 Once this is done the next batch can be loaded into R2 and then assuming that the
reaction in R1 is complete, the contents of R1 will be transferred to the thin down tank
and the wash down procedure for R1 is initiated.
 The various sequences of operations required can become complex and there may also be
complex decisions to be made as to when to begin a sequence.
 The sequence initiation may be left to a human operator or the computer may be
programmed to supervise the operations.

 It is difficult using computer control to obtain the same flexibility that can be achieved
using a human operator. As a consequence many supervisory systems are mixed; the
computer is programmed to carry out the necessary supervisory calculations and to
present its decisions for confirmation or rejection by the operator, or alternatively it
presents a range of options to the operator.
 In most batch systems there is also, in addition to the sequence control, some continuous
feedback control: for example, control of temperatures, pressures, flows, speeds or
currents.

An example of continuous systems involving sequence, loop and supervisory

control:

Consider the float glass process shown in the below figure 2.3.

The raw materials sand, powdered glass and fluxes are mixed in batches and fed in to the
furnace.
 The mixture melts rapidly to form a molten mixture which flows through the furnace.
  As the molten glass moves through the furnace it is refined.
 Here controlling temperature is very important to maintain quality and to keep fuel costs
minimum.
 The molten glass flows out of the furnace and forms a ribbon on the float bath; again
temperature control is important as the glass ribbon has to cool sufficiently so that it can
pass over rollers without damaging the surface.
 The continuous ribbon passes into the lehr where it is annealed and again temperature
control is an important factor.
 From the lehr the glass ribbon moves down the line towards the cutting station at a speed
which is too great for manual inspection so automatic inspection is used and faults are
being marked by spraying paint on to the ribbon.
 The glass ribbon is passed under a cutter which cuts it to the sheets of required size and
automatic stackers lift the sheets from production line.
 The whole process is controlled by several computers.

Loop Control (Direct Digital Control):

[Direct digital control (DDC) is a control process in which a microprocessor controller constantly updates an
internal information database by monitoring information from a controlled environment and continuously
produces corrective output commands in response to changing control conditions]
 In direct digital control (DDC) the computer is in feedback loop as shown in the below
figure.
 A consequence of the computer being used in the feedback loop is that it forms a critical
component in terms of the reliability of the system and hence great care is needed to
ensure that in the event of failure or malfunctioning the plant must remain in safe
condition.
  The usual means of ensuring safety is to limit DDC unit to make incremental changes to
the actuators on the plant and to limit the rate of changes of the actuator.
 Advantages of DDC are as follows:
1. Cost- cheaper than analog control as a single digital computer can control a large
number of loops.
2. Performance- digital control offers simpler implementation of a wide range of control
algorithms, improved controller accuracy and reduced drift.
3. Safety- modern digital hardware is highly reliable with long mean time between
failures and hence can improve the safety of systems.

PID control :( proportional integral derivative)

A proportional–integral–derivative controller (PID controller or three-term controller) is
a control loop mechanism employing feedback that is widely used in industrial control
systems and a variety of other applications requiring continuously modulated control. A PID

controller continuously calculates an error value as the difference between a desired set
point (SP) and a measured process variable (PV) and applies a correction based
on proportional, integral, and derivative terms (denoted P, I, and D respectively).
 For wide range of industrial application overall performance can be improved by using
either PI or PID control.
 For majority of the systems, PI control is sufficient, using a control signal that is made
proportional to the error between the desired value of an output and actual value of the
output.
  The ratio between the control signal and the error signal can be adjusted using
proportionality constant(Kp)
 Choosing Kp value is difficult,
 A high value of Kp gives a small steady state error and a fast response but response is
oscillatory which is not acceptable in many applications.
 A low value of Kp gives a slow response and a large steady state error
 By adding the integral action term the steady state error can be reduced to zero since
integral term integrates the error signal with respect to time.
 A purely proportional controller operates correctly under only one condition; any change
in environment would result in a steady state error. These errors are reduced by
employing integral term.
 For few processes which are subjective to sudden disturbances, derivative term would
compensate for the changes.
 PID controller gives well behaved controller hence used extensively.
 PID control algorithm has the general form,

Where, Kp = overall controller gain

e (t) = r (t) - c (t)
c (t) is the measured variable,
r (t) is the reference value or set point
e (t) is the error,
Ti is the integral action time,
Td is the derivative action time.

DDC applications:
 DDC loops may be applied to a single loop systems implemented on a small
microprocessor or to a large system involving hundred loops.
 A typical example is a steam boiler control system as shown in the figure.
  A steam boiler control system, which involves the following operations to be controlled.
 A particular mixture of air & fuel is supplied to control the steam pressure
 The steam pressure control system generates an actuation signal which is fed to an auto /
manual bias station
 If the auto switch is ON then actuation signal is supplied to the next level
 If manual mode is selected then signal which is entered manually is supplied to the next
level.
 The signal from bias station is connected to two units high signal and low signal
selector, each of which as two inputs and one output. The high signal selects higher of the
two input signal and transmits.
 Low selector transmits the lower of two inputs.
 Low selector provides set point for DDC loop controlling oil flow and high selector
provides set points for air flow controller.
 The ratio unit R is installed in the air flow measurement line.
 A signal from the controller which monitors the combustion flames directly is added to
the air flow signal to provide the input to the air flow controller.

DDC technique are also used for

 Inferential controller
 Feed-forward controller
 Adaptive or self tuning controller
Inferential controller:

It is applied to control system, where the variables on which feedback control is to be based
cannot be measured directly, but have to be inferred from measurements of some other quantity.

The above figure illustrate the general structure of inferential control configuration, some
measurements can be measure directly but some measurements cannot be done directly, hence
some other process measurement is made and from this the value of the controlled variables is
inferred.

Inferential control are usually used in distillation column control, schematic diagram of binary
distillation is shown in below figure.
  The four independent variables usually controlled are liquid levels Ha and Hb in the
accumulator and reboiler, compositions Xa and Xb of the top and bottom products
 The compositions can be measured directly by spectrographic techniques but it is more
usual to measure the temperature at point Ya and Yb near the top and bottom of the
column and pressure P in the column.
 The temperature represents the boiling points of the mixture at the position in the column.
 From measurements of pressure and temperature the composition can be inferred.

Feed forward control:

 It is frequently used in the process industries.
 It involves measuring the disturbances on the system rather than measuring the outputs.
 The general structure of feed forward system is as shown in the below figure.
  Example: in the hot rolling of sheet steel, if the temperature of the billet is known as it
approaches the first stage mill, the initial setting of the roll gap can be calculated
accurately and estimates of the reduction at each stage of the mill can be made, hence
initial gap for the subsequent stages can also be calculated.
 If this is done time taken to get the gauge of the steel within tolerance can be reduced and
hence quantity of scrap steel is reduced.
 The effect of introducing feed forward control is to speed up the response of the system
to disturbances.

Adaptive control:
Adaptive control detects the changes in the characteristics of the process and adjusts the
controller parameters automatically to compensate for the changing conditions of the process and
in turn to optimize the loop response.

Adaptive control can take several forms, three among the most common are as follows

 Pre-programmed Adaptive Control (or Gain Scheduled Adaptive Control)

 Self tuning
 Model reference adaptive control

Pre-programmed adaptive control:

 The adaptive are adjustment mechanism makes preset changes on the basis of changes in
auxiliary process measurements.
The above fig 2.9 illustrates programmed adaptive control for auxiliary process measurements.
Example:
 In a reaction vessel a measurement of the level of liquid in the vessel might be used to
change the gain of the controller.
 In many aircraft controls the measure air speed is used to select controller parameters
according to a preset schedule.

Above Figure illustrates programmed adaptive control for external environment in which
measurements of changes in the external environment are used to select the gain or other
controller parameters.
Example:
 In an aircraft auto- stabilizer control parameters may be changed according to the
external air pressure.
Self tuning adaptive control:
 It uses identification techniques to achieve continual determination of the parameters of
the process being controlled.
 Changes in the process parameters are then used to adjust the actual controller.
 An alternative form is to inject a small disturbance to the process and measures the
response, then response is compared to some desired response and controller parameters
are adjusted to bring the response closer to the desired response

Model reference adaptive control:

  It relies on the ability to construct an accurate model of the process and to measure the
disturbances which affect the process.
 When the process parameters are unknown or change in time, in order to achieve and to
maintain the desired performance, an adaptive control scheme known as Model
Reference Adaptive Control (MRAC) is used.
 A reference model which is the realization of the process with desired performances. This
scheme is based on the observation that the difference between the output of the process
and the output of the reference model (called as the process-model error) is a measure of
the difference between the real and the desired performance.
 The Adjustment Mechanism directly adjusts the parameters of the controller in real time
in order to force the process-model error to zero

Supervisory control:
 Computers are not only used to directly control the operation the plant, but also it can
provide managers and engineers with a comprehensive picture of the status of the plant
operators. It is the supervisory role.
 The basic idea is as shown in the below figure.

 The circles labeled C represents individual controllers in the feedback loop,these can be
digital computers or some other form of controllers.
 An example of supervisory control is shown in the below fig.2.12
  Two evaporators are connected in parallel and material which is in liquid form (solution)
is fed to each unit.
 The purpose of the plant is to evaporator as much as water as possible in the solution.
 Steam is supplied to a heat exchanger linked to the first evaporator and the steam for the
second evaporator is supplied from the vapours boiled of from the first stage.
 To achieve maximum evaporation the pressures in the chambers must be as high as safety
permits
 Also it is necessary to achieve a balance between the two evaporators.
 A supervisory control scheme can be design to balance the operation of the two
evaporators to obtain the best overall evaporation rate.
 Supervisory are based upon the steady state characteristics of the plant. In some plants
control algorithms have also been used to increase plant profitability.
 Currently, expert system (an expert system is an interactive computer based decision tool
that uses both facts and heuristics to solve difficult decision making problems, based on
knowledge acquired from an expert) are used for supervisory control.
Centralized computer control:
 A general purpose computer can be program to perform all the require tasks, the timing
differences and the security requirements for the various categories of the task make the
programming job difficult.
 Around 1970s the cost of the computer hardware had reduced to such an extent that it
became feasible to consider the use of dual computer system as shown in the figure
below
In the event of failure of one of the computers the other takes over.
 In some schemes the changeover is manual in others automatic failure detection and
change over is incorporated.
 These schemes have number of contemporary issues like
 Cabling and interface equipment is not usually duplicated
 Automatic failure and change over equipment when used becomes itself a critical
component.
 Designing, programming, testing and maintaining software becomes very difficult.
 Multicomputer systems are of two types namely
o Hierarchical system
o Distributed system
o
Hierarchical system:
o Tasks are divided according to function example one computer is used for DDC
calculations and other is used for supervisory control etc.
o Typical company decision making structure is shown in the below figure
Each decision element receives commands from the level above and sends information back to
that level.
o On the basis of information received from the elements below and from constraints
imposed by elements at the same level, sends commands to the elements below and
information to the elements of same level.
o At the bottom of the hierarchy, a fast response to simple problems is required.
o As system progresses up, the complexity of the calculation increases as does the time
allowed for the response.
o A typical example of hierarchical system is the batch system as shown in the figure
This system has three levels which are called as manager, supervisor and unit control. It is
assumed that single computer is used for the managerial role and supervisory role and each
process is controlled by unit control (computers which are connected through data highway).
o At the managerial level function such as resource allocation, production scheduling and
process accounting are carried out.
o The important information may be sales order, stock levels, selling cost, operating cost,
etc..,
o The information regarding the production schedule is transferred to the supervisor.
o It is assumed that supervisor has a store of the operation sequences for making the
product when particular unit is selected, the information are loaded into the unit
controller, also supervisors will receive information regarding status reports of the
productions.
o At the lowest level the unit controllers will operate the plant and will report the same to
the level above them.