Yokogawa Electric Corporation

Ntt Docomo, Inc.

Dai Nippon Printing Co., Ltd.

Saturn Licensing LLC

Takeshi Ohno

Yoshitaka Yoshida

Shota Uehara

Nobuaki Ema

Masanobu Tsuchiya

Hidetoshi Ishikawa

Hiroshi Umeno

Akira Nagashima

Takeshi Murakami

Akira Noguchi

Yusuke Takeno

Erika Ootaki

A process control system includes a first process control apparatus and a second process control apparatus. The second process control apparatus includes a data takeover unit configured to acquire, from the first process control apparatus, takeover data required to be taken over to continue a system function when switching from the first process control apparatus to the second process control apparatus is performed and restore the takeover data in the second process control apparatus and a timing determiner configured to determine a timing when the switching will be performed.

Process control system, process control apparatus, and program update method

A first process control apparatus in a process control system executes a non-update target program which is not an update target and an update target program which may be the update target, pauses the non-update target program based on a pause request from an outside, and transfers a context of the non-update target program to a second process control apparatus. The second process control apparatus in the process control system executes the non-update target program which is not the update target and an update target program after update, restores a context of the non-update target program by using the transferred context, initializes a context of the update target program, and causes the second program execution unit to resume the non-update target program and the update target program, based on a resuming request from the outside.

Process control system, process control apparatus and program update method

A service providing device included in a process control system in a plant, the service providing device includes a communicator configured to perform communication via a network, a service provider configured to provides a service via the communicator by exclusively assigning first identification information to one of the service providing device and an alternative service providing device, the first identification information being common to the alternative service providing device which provides the service instead of the service providing device, and a heartbeat transmitter configured to transmit heartbeat information for notifying that the service is normal to the alternative service providing device via a relaying device by using second identification information which is different from the first identification information.

Service providing device, alternative service providing device, relaying device, service providing system, and service providing method

A processing device according to one aspect of the present invention includes a provider configured to provide a process to a first device connected to a network of a process control system in a plant, an acquirer configured to acquire a live list generated by the first device based on diagnostic communication packets transmitted from the first device at predetermined time intervals, the live list comprising information indicating whether communication between the first device and another processing device that provides a process to the first device is norma, the processing device and the another processing device constituting a redundant pair, and a switch configured to switch a state of the provider from a standby state in which the provider is on standby to provide the process to the first device to an active state in which the provider provides the process to the first device based on the acquired live list.

Processing device, network device, control method of processing device, control method of network device, and recording medium

A redundancy device which is configured to communicate with a redundancy opposite device and perform a redundancy execution, the redundancy device includes receivers configured to receive individually HB signals transmitted from the redundancy opposite device, a calculator configured to calculate a number of normal communication paths among communication paths of the HB signals based on a reception result of the receivers, a comparator configured to compare a calculation result of the calculator with a predetermined threshold value, and a changer configured to change the redundancy device from a standby state to an operating state, or change the redundancy device from the standby state to a not-standby state in which the redundancy execution is released, based on the calculation result of the calculator and a comparison result of the comparator.

Redundancy device, redundancy system, and redundancy method

A process control apparatus includes a virtualization unit configured to operate in hardware, first and second operating systems configured to run in the virtualization unit, an application configured to run in the first operating system, and configured to control an industrial process by communicating with field devices, a recording unit configured to record a first information required for restoration of the application and a second information passed between the first operating system and the application, and a restoration unit configured to use a history of the second information to set the second operating system to the same state as the internal state of the first operating system, and configured to use the first information to restore the application running in the first operating system into the second operating system.

Process control apparatus and system and updating method therefor

A process control apparatus includes a hypervisor, a controller configured to run on the hypervisor and to communicate with a field apparatus to control an industrial process, an operation model definer configured to define an operation model, which is information establishing operation specifications derived from specifications of the controller, a trace information collector configured to collect traces of interactive motions between hardware and the controller, and a normality determiner configured to compare the operation model defined by the operation model definer with the information collected by the trace information collector and to determine the normality of the operation of the process control apparatus.

Process control apparatus and system, and method for determining normality thereof

A process controller includes a first virtualizer to run in a first process controller and a first operating system to run on the first virtualizer, the first operating system transiting from a first state to a second state when control of an industrial process is started. The first operating system transits from the second state to the first state when control of the industrial process for one period ends, the first state being waiting for starting the control of the industrial process, and the second state being when the industrial process is performed. An application runs on the first operating system and performs control of the industrial process at a constant period. A saving unit saves information representing an inner state of the application when the first operating system is in the first state, the information restoring the application in a second process controller different from the first process controller.

Process controller and updating method thereof

A fault tolerant system includes a primary virtual machine that is formed on a primary machine in which a primary hypervisor runs, and is adapted to input virtual interrupt based on an external interrupt from the primary hypervisor to a primary guest OS, and a secondary virtual machine that is formed on a secondary machine in which a secondary hypervisor runs, and is adapted to input the virtual interrupt to a secondary guest OS on the basis of timing information on the virtual interrupt transmitted from the primary virtual machine. The primary virtual machine is adapted to collect operation performance information from the secondary virtual machine, and to configure an operation performance of the primary virtual machine and an operation performance of the secondary virtual machine so that the operation performance of the primary virtual machine becomes equal to the operation performance of the secondary virtual machine.

Fault tolerant system and method for performing fault tolerant

A fault tolerant system includes a primary virtual machine formed on a primary machine in which a primary hypervisor runs, and configured to input virtual interrupt based on an external interrupt from the primary hypervisor to a primary guest OS, and a secondary virtual machine formed on a secondary machine in which a secondary hypervisor runs, and configured to input virtual interrupt to a secondary guest OS on the basis of timing information on the virtual interrupt transmitted from the primary virtual machine. The primary virtual machine is configured to determine whether the virtual interrupt is generated, or not, upon receiving the external interrupt from the primary hypervisor, and only if it is determined that the virtual interrupt is generated, the primary virtual machine is configured to input the virtual interrupt to the primary guest OS, and to transmit timing information on the virtual interrupt to the secondary virtual machine.

A fault tolerant system includes a primary virtual machine that is formed on a primary machine in which a primary hypervisor runs, and is configured to input virtual interrupt based on an external interrupt from the primary hypervisor to a primary guest OS, and a secondary virtual machine that is formed on a secondary machine in which a secondary hypervisor runs, and is configured to input the virtual interrupt to a secondary guest OS on the basis of timing information on the virtual interrupt transmitted from the primary virtual machine. The primary virtual machine is configured to transmit the timing information on the virtual interrupt including the number of branch instructions executed by the primary guest OS before inputting the virtual interrupt, and including an execution suspension position when inputting the virtual interrupt to the secondary virtual machine.

A primary virtual machine is formed on a primary machine in which a primary hypervisor runs, and inputs virtual interrupt based on an external interrupt from the primary hypervisor to a primary guest OS. A secondary virtual machine is formed on a secondary machine in which a secondary hypervisor runs, and inputs the virtual interrupt to a secondary guest OS on the basis of timing information on the virtual interrupt transmitted from the primary virtual machine. When inputting the virtual interrupt to the primary guest OS, the primary virtual machine suspends the primary guest OS, and determines whether the suspended position is in a critical section. If the suspended position is not in the critical section, the primary virtual machine inputs the virtual interrupt at the suspended position. If the suspended position is in the critical section, the primary virtual machine changes the suspended position, and again performs the determination.

The present invention provides a mobile communication terminal, an IC card, a mobile communication system, a program, and a communication charge notification method capable of easily indicating roaming communication charges and preventing a user from being unexpectedly charged for communication. A mobile phonedetects that it is located in a country B as a roaming area based on information transmitted from a base station, inquires of a charge information related serverwhether or not a communication charge information stored in a storage sectionis the latest communication charge information, when the communication charge information is not the latest communication charge information, updates the stored communication charge information based on the communication charge information transmitted from the charge information related server, reads the communication charge information of the country B from the storage section, and displays the communication charge information on a display section

Mobile communication terminal, IC card, mobile communication system, program, and communication charge notification method

A field device connected to a network includes: a storage section; a communication section for performing communication via the network; and an arithmetic control section for controlling the field device entirely by executing a main task under an execution environment, and controlling an operation mechanism that operates under the execution environment. The operation mechanism assigns a group identifier, a unique address space and a unique name space to an additional task being started.

Field device and system employing the same

The allocation of hardware resources to distribution applications is enabled without using effective task priority available only in field devices. A distribution system makes a plurality of field devices connected with each other through a network (N) operate a plurality of distribution applications (distribution AP) in parallel. The distribution system is provided with an importance adjustment unit () that calculates relative values indicative of the task priority in the field devices in accordance with the importance of the distribution AP designated for every distribution AP and a resource allocation unit () that allocates the hardware resources of each field device to each of the tasks of which the distribution AP are composed in accordance with the relative values in the field devices calculated by importance adjustment unit ().

Growing community of inventors

Tokyo, Japan

Takeshi Ohno