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. 12, 2006
Filed:
Jun. 30, 2004
Stanley Anthony Frederick, Morgan Hill, CA (US);
Boris Leonid Sheikman, Morgan Hill, CA (US);
Stanley Anthony Frederick, Morgan Hill, CA (US);
Boris Leonid Sheikman, Morgan Hill, CA (US);
General Electric Company, Schenectady, NY (US);
Abstract
A safety instrument suitable for use in an industrial application includes a logic card having a microcontroller configured to perform self-test of the instrument and surveillance functions of an external system that is monitored and/or controlled by the instrument. The logic card also includes at least one complex programmable logic device (CPLD) configured to execute logic functions relating to human safety requirements of the external system independently of the microcontroller and to provide address decoding, input/output addressing, and/or registers for the microcontroller. The instrument further includes one or more I/O modules that are operatively coupled to the logic card to communicate monitor signals and/or control signals from the logic card to the external system.