The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Dec. 30, 2003
Filed:
Mar. 30, 2001
John J. Varone, Seekonk, MA (US);
Norbert W. Elsdoerfer, Warwick, RI (US);
Helix Technology Corporation, Mansfield, MA (US);
Abstract
A vacuum network control system includes a vacuum network controller hub communicating over a public high-speed network, where the hub has an address registered with respect to the non-local network and communicates over a first local high-speed network. Vacuum network controllers (VNCs) communicate with the hub over the first local network. Each VNC has a dynamically assigned local address and communicates with at least one component intrabus module over a second local high-speed network. Each module has a dynamically assigned local address and further communicates with one or more monitor and control end units over a local device network. Each monitor and control end unit has a dynamically assigned address. Monitor and control end units include taps, which provide at least one of analog, digital or serial I/O, and components, for example, vacuum pumps. Device addresses can be dynamically assigned based on unique identification information sent by the device upon the device's initialization, where the device's assigned local address is transmitted back to the device in response.