Systems, apparatus, articles of manufacture, and methods for sequences generated for events of process control system

Abstract

Methods, apparatus, systems, and articles of manufacture are disclosed for a sequence of event generation for a process control system. An example apparatus includes at least one memory, machine-readable instructions, and processor circuitry to execute or instantiate at least one of the machine-readable instructions to: obtain a first digital signal from a first field device, the first digital signal represents a first sensor data value marked with a first timestamp generated by the first field device; obtaining a second digital signal from a second field device, the second digital signal representing a second sensor data value marked with a second timestamp generated by the second field device; and storing a data association of the first sensor data value and the second sensor data value in a data store, the data association representing a sequence of events, the sequence of events comprising an order of the first sensor data value and the second sensor data value based on the first timestamp and the second timestamp.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present disclosure relates generally to process control systems and, more particularly, to systems, apparatus, articles of manufacture, and methods for sequence of event generation for a process control system. Background Art

[0002] Distributed control systems monitor and / or control field devices, such as actuators and sensors, in a process control system. When a process upset occurs, events can occur rapidly throughout the process control system. Accurate logging and sequencing of events is required to determine the cause of the upset. Summary of the invention

[0003] Disclosed are systems, devices, articles, and methods for sequence generation of events for process control systems. The example device includes at least one memory, machine-readable instructions, and a processor circuit. In some disclosed examples, the processor circuit is used to execute or instantiate at least one of the machine-readable instructions to obtain a first digital signal from at least a first field device in the process control system, the first digital signal representing a first sensor data value marked with a first timestamp, and the first timestamp is to be generated by the first field device. In some disclosed examples, the processor circuit is used to execute or instantiate at least one of the machine-readable instructions to obtain a second digital signal from a second field device in the process control system, the second digital signal representing a second sensor data value marked with a second timestamp, and the second timestamp is to be generated by the second field device. In some disclosed examples, the processor circuit is used to execute or instantiate at least one of the machine-readable instructions to store a data association of the first sensor data value with the second sensor data value in a data storage, the data association representing a sequence of events associated with the process control system, the sequence of events including an order of the first sensor data value and the second sensor data value based on the first timestamp and the second timestamp.

[0004] An example non-transitory machine-readable storage medium includes instructions that, when executed, cause a processor circuit to obtain at least a first digital signal from a first field device in a process control system, the first digital signal representing a first sensor data value marked with a first timestamp, the first timestamp to be generated by the first field device. In some disclosed examples, the instructions, when executed, cause the processor circuit to obtain a second digital signal from a second field device in the process control system, the second digital signal representing a second sensor data value marked with a second timestamp, the second timestamp to be generated by the second field device. In some disclosed examples, the instructions, when executed, cause the processor circuit to store a data association of the first sensor data value with the second sensor data value in a data store, the data association representing a sequence of events associated with the process control system, the sequence of events including an order of the first sensor data value and the second sensor data value based on the first timestamp and the second timestamp.

[0005] An example method includes obtaining a first digital signal from a first field device in a process control system, the first digital signal representing a first sensor data value tagged with a first timestamp, the first timestamp being generated by the first field device. In some disclosed examples, the method also includes obtaining a second digital signal from a second field device in the process control system, the second digital signal representing a second sensor data value tagged with a second timestamp, the second timestamp being generated by the second field device. In some disclosed examples, the method also includes storing a data association of the first sensor data value with the second sensor data value in a data store, the data association representing a sequence of events associated with the process control system, the sequence of events including an order of the first sensor data value and the second sensor data value based on the first timestamp and the second timestamp.

[0006] Another example device including at least one memory, machine-readable instructions, and a processor circuit is disclosed. In some disclosed examples, the processor circuit is used to execute or instantiate at least one of the machine-readable instructions to record a timestamp at the field device during a measurement phase at least after determining that a measurement phase associated with a field device in a process control system is triggered. In some disclosed examples, the processor circuit is used to execute or instantiate at least one of the machine-readable instructions to record a sensor measurement result associated with the timestamp at the field device. In some disclosed examples, the processor circuit is used to execute or instantiate at least one of the machine-readable instructions to cause a digital signal representing at least one of the timestamp or the sensor measurement result to be sent from the field device to the electronic device using a network communication protocol. In some disclosed examples, the processor circuit is used to execute or instantiate at least one of the machine-readable instructions to cause a sequence generation of events for the field device based on the digital signal.

[0007] Another example non-transitory machine-readable storage medium including instructions is disclosed, which, when executed, causes a processor circuit to obtain a first digital signal from at least a first field device in a process control system, the first digital signal representing a first sensor data value marked with a first timestamp, the first timestamp to be generated by the first field device. In some disclosed examples, the instructions, when executed, cause the processor circuit to record a timestamp at the field device during a measurement phase after determining that a measurement phase associated with the field device in the process control system is triggered. In some disclosed examples, the instructions, when executed, cause the processor circuit to record a sensor measurement result associated with the timestamp at the field device. In some disclosed examples, the instructions, when executed, cause the processor circuit to cause a digital signal representing at least one of the timestamp or the sensor measurement result to be sent from the field device to the electronic device using a network communication protocol. In some disclosed examples, the instructions, when executed, cause the processor circuit to cause a sequence generation of events for the field device based on the digital signal.

[0008] Another example method is disclosed, the method including recording a timestamp at the field device during a measurement phase after determining that a measurement phase associated with a field device in a process control system is triggered. In some disclosed examples, the method also includes recording a sensor measurement associated with the timestamp at the field device. In some disclosed examples, the method also includes using a network communication protocol to send a digital signal representing at least one of the timestamp or the sensor measurement from the field device to the electronic device. In some disclosed examples, the method also includes causing a sequence generation of events for the field device based on the digital signal. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0009] Figure 1 is an illustration of a first example process control system using an example field device coupled to an example input / output (I / O) card to observe events in a process control environment.

[0010] Figure 2 is an illustration of a second example process control system using an example field device coupled to an example controller via an example network to observe events in a process control environment.

[0011] Figure 3 is an illustration of a third example process control system using example field devices and example I / O systems coupled to an example controller to observe events in a process control environment.

[0012] Figure 4 yes Figure 2 and / or Figure 3 A block diagram of an example implementation of a controller.

[0013] Figure 5 yes Figure 2and / or Figure 3 A block diagram of an example implementation of a field device and / or I / O system.

[0014] Figure 6 Depicted with Figure 2 and / or Figure 3 A diagram of example digital signals associated with an example field device and / or an example I / O system.

[0015] Figure 7 Depicted with Figure 2 and / or Figure 3 A diagram of example analog signals associated with example field devices and / or example I / O systems.

[0016] Figure 8 Depicted is an example sequence of events associated with an example process control system.

[0017] Fig. 9 is a flowchart representing example machine-readable instructions and / or example operations that may be executed by example processor circuits to implement Figure 2 and / or Figure 3 An example controller is provided for generating a sequence of events associated with a process control system.

[0018] Fig.10 is another flow chart representing example machine-readable instructions and / or example operations that may be executed by example processor circuitry to implement Figure 2 and / or Figure 3 An example controller is provided for generating a sequence of events associated with a process control system.

[0019] Fig.11 is a flowchart representing example machine-readable instructions and / or example operations that may be executed by example processor circuits to implement Figure 2 and / or Figure 3 An example controller to generate a sequence of events based on sensor measurements from subscribing field devices.

[0020] Fig.12 is a flowchart representing example machine-readable instructions and / or example operations that may be executed by example processor circuits to implement Figure 2 and / or Figure 3 An example field device is provided to cause generation of a sequence of events associated with a process control system.

[0021] Fig.13is another flow chart representing example machine-readable instructions and / or example operations that may be executed by example processor circuitry to implement Figure 2 and / or Figure 3 An example field device is provided to cause generation of a sequence of events associated with a process control system.

[0022] Fig.14 is a flowchart representing example machine-readable instructions and / or example operations that may be executed by example processor circuits to implement Figure 2 and / or Figure 3 An example field device is provided to obtain (multiple) sensor measurement results that meet (multiple) thresholds.

[0023] Fig.15 is a flowchart representing example machine-readable instructions and / or example operations that may be executed by example processor circuits to implement Figure 2 and / or Figure 3 An example field device is provided to generate a sequence of events associated with a process control system based on minimum value(s) and / or maximum value(s) of sensor measurement(s).

[0024] Fig.16 is a flowchart representing example machine-readable instructions and / or example operations that may be executed by example processor circuits to implement Figure 2 and / or Figure 3 Example field devices for event storm prevention.

[0025] Fig.17 is a block diagram of an example processing platform including a processor circuit configured to perform Fig. 9 , Fig.10 , Fig.11 , Fig.13 and / or Fig.15 Example machine readable instructions and / or example operations to implement Figure 2 and / or Figure 3 An example controller for

[0026] Fig.18 is a block diagram of an example processing platform including a processor circuit configured to perform Fig. 9 , Fig.10 , Fig.11 , Fig.13 and / or Fig.15 Example machine readable instructions and / or example operations to implement Figure 2 and / or Figure 3 Example field device.

[0027] Fig.19 yes Fig.17 and / or Fig.18 A block diagram of an example implementation of a processor circuit.

[0028] Fig. 20 yes Fig.17 and / or Fig.18 A block diagram of another example implementation of a processor circuit.

[0029] Fig.21 is to convert software (for example, corresponding to Fig. 9 , Fig.10 , Fig.11 , Fig.12 , Fig.13 , Fig.14 , Fig.15 and / or Fig.16 Block diagram of an example software distribution platform (e.g., one or more servers) for distributing software corresponding to example machine-readable instructions of the present invention to client devices associated with end-users and / or consumers (e.g., for licensing, sale, and / or use), retailers (e.g., for sale, resale, licensing and / or sub-licensing), and / or original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) (e.g., for inclusion in products to be distributed to, for example, retailers and / or other end-users such as direct purchasing customers). DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0030] Generally, the same reference numbers are used throughout the drawing(s) and accompanying written description to refer to the same or like parts.The drawings are not drawn to scale.

[0031] As used herein, unless otherwise indicated, connection references (e.g., attachment, coupling, connection, and engagement) may include intermediate members between elements referenced by the connection reference and / or relative movement between those elements. As such, connection references do not necessarily infer that two elements are directly connected to each other and / or are in a fixed relationship.

[0032] Unless otherwise expressly stated, descriptors such as "first", "second", "third", etc., as used herein, are not attributed to or otherwise indicate any meaning of priority, physical order, arrangement in a list, and / or ordering in any manner, but are merely used as labels and / or arbitrary names to distinguish elements to facilitate understanding of the disclosed examples. In some examples, the descriptor "first" may be used to refer to an element in a specific embodiment, while the same element may be referred to in the claims by a different descriptor such as "second" or "third". In such instances, it should be understood that such descriptors are only used to clearly identify, for example, those elements that otherwise share the same name.

[0033] As used herein, "substantially real time" refers to occurring in a near instantaneous manner, recognizing that there may be real-world delays for computation times, transmissions, etc. Thus, unless otherwise specified, "substantially real time" refers to real time + / - 1 second.

[0034] As used herein, the phrase "in communication" (including variations thereof) encompasses direct communication and / or indirect communication through one or more intermediate components, and does not require direct physical (e.g., wired) communication and / or constant communication, but additionally includes selective communication at periodic intervals, scheduled intervals, non-periodic intervals and / or one-time events.

[0035] As used herein, "processor circuitry" is defined as including: (i) one or more dedicated circuits that are constructed to perform specific operations (multiple) and include one or more semiconductor-based logic devices (e.g., electrical hardware implemented by one or more transistors); and / or (ii) one or more general-purpose semiconductor-based circuits that are programmable with instructions to perform specific operations and include one or more semiconductor-based logic devices (e.g., electrical hardware implemented by one or more transistors). Examples of processor circuits include programmable microprocessors, field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) that can instantiate instructions, central processor units (CPUs), graphics processor units (GPUs), digital signal processors (DSPs), XPUs or microcontrollers, and integrated circuits such as application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs). For example, an XPU can be implemented by a heterogeneous computing system including multiple types of processor circuits (e.g., one or more FPGAs, one or more CPUs, one or more GPUs, one or more DSPs, etc., and / or combinations thereof) and (multiple) application programming interfaces ((multiple) APIs), which can assign (multiple) computing tasks to any one of the multiple types of processor circuits that is most suitable for performing the (multiple) computing tasks.

[0036] A process control system (sometimes referred to as an industrial control system) is a system that has the ability to monitor and regulate processes or operations in a process control environment (e.g., a factory, plant, refinery, etc.) to achieve a desired output. For example, the desired output may include the assembly and / or manufacture of a substance (e.g., a chemical substance, composition, or compound), a product, or an article. In some examples, a process control system may be used to monitor and / or control different aspects of operations to be performed in a process control environment, such as, for example, manufacturing components, processing chemical feedstocks, etc.

[0037] Some process control systems may be controlled and / or otherwise implemented by a distributed control system (DCS). A DCS may include a system of sensors, controllers, and associated electronic or computing systems distributed throughout a process control environment. Various components of a DCS may be communicatively coupled to one (or more) of each other via a process control network, which may be implemented by one or more bus networks, protocols, etc.

[0038] Process control systems become increasingly complex as their components are developed and deployed with increasing data acquisition resolution, processing power, and signal conditioning. A process control system typically includes at least one controller with accompanying inputs and outputs that allow the controller(s) to acquire signals from and / or control various output field devices and / or instruments.

[0039] As used herein, the terms "field device" and "instrument" are used interchangeably and refer to components and / or devices (e.g., electronic devices) such as, for example, actuators, actuator assemblies, actuator controllers, actuator positioners, sensors (e.g., rate and / or velocity sensors, level sensors, pressure sensors, temperature sensors, etc.), transmitters, valve assemblies, etc., which can be used throughout a process control system to measure and / or control different aspects of the process control system (e.g., other field devices or process control components). As an example, a field device such as a valve (e.g., a valve assembly, a fluid flow control assembly, etc.) may include both electrical components and mechanical components. A valve may include electrical components such as a digital valve positioner, a flow rate sensor, a pressure sensor, a controller (e.g., a valve controller), etc., and a valve may include mechanical components such as an actuator. In some examples, a field device may be a sensor that monitors aspects (multiple) of a valve, such as a pressure sensor, a temperature sensor, etc.

[0040] A process control system may be adversely affected by a process control failure. A process control failure may be caused by numerous reasons, such as, for example, continuous operation, environmental factors, manufacturing defects, etc. In some instances, a failure associated with a first field device may start a chain reaction of events associated with (multiple) second field devices in the same process (or a different process) as the first field device. Events may include failures of (multiple) other field devices, (multiple) emergency shutdown operations, etc., and / or any (multiple) combinations thereof. Such a chain reaction of events may be referred to herein as a sequence of events (SOE).

[0041] Some DCS and safety instrumented systems (SIS) can capture SOEs from field devices. For example, an input / output (I / O) card (e.g., a programmable logic controller (PLC) I / O card) can be coupled to a field device. The I / O card can capture events from a field device based on observed changes in a physical signal (e.g., an analog signal) from the field device, such as a current (e.g., a current measurement) or a voltage (e.g., a voltage measurement) processed by the I / O card. For example, the I / O card can obtain a first event at a first time based on a first voltage from the field device, a second event at a second time after the first time based on a second voltage from the field device, and so on. In this example, the I / O card can generate an SOE by arranging events in a sequence based on the corresponding times at which the voltages are observed.

[0042] With the introduction of digital field devices in process control systems using network communication protocols (e.g., Ethernet), I / O cards are no longer able to observe changes in analog signals from field devices. For example, an I / O card may obtain data packets or messages from a field device instead of an analog signal. Additionally and / or alternatively, if a field device is connected in a process control system via a network interface such as a network switch or an edge gateway, there may be no I / O card available to capture and record SOE and additional analog device information (e.g., current signals, voltage signals, etc.).

[0043] Examples disclosed herein include distributed capture of SOEs from digital (e.g., fully digital) field devices for discrete process parameters (e.g., an open or closed valve parameter that may have a first current / voltage representing an open state and a second current / voltage representing a closed state, etc.) and / or analog process parameters (e.g., a pressure parameter that may have a pressure measurement represented by a value in the range of 4-20 milliamps (mA), 0-5 volts direct current (VDC), etc.). In some disclosed examples, SOE (multiple) configurations, (multiple) settings, etc. may be set at the field device level to improve the granularity of SOE data collection. For example, field devices in a process control system may be configured to report and / or otherwise send process parameter values ​​differently based on safety considerations and requirements.

[0044] In some disclosed examples, the field device can provide SOE data, information, etc. to an electronic device such as a controller or a network interface (e.g., a network switch, an edge gateway, etc.). For example, the SOE data, information, etc. can include data values ​​of discrete parameters, analog parameters, and / or associated timestamps. In some disclosed examples, the field device can generate data values ​​(e.g., discrete data values, floating point values, etc.) at various time intervals or quantitative locations based on sensor measurements (e.g., pressure measurements, temperature measurements, etc.).

[0045] In some disclosed examples, a field device may generate data values ​​associated with sensor measurements at a first time, a second time, etc. For example, for comparison purposes, the first time may be an initial time at the beginning of a data capture or measurement phase, and the second time may be a current or instantaneous time during the data capture / measurement phase. In some disclosed examples, a field device may generate a first timestamp corresponding to the first time, a second timestamp corresponding to the second time, etc.

[0046] Advantageously, in examples disclosed herein, a field device can generate a timestamp at the field device for events observed locally at the field device. This local timestamp generation is an improvement over examples where a remote controller generates a timestamp to indicate when an event from a field device is received rather than when the event occurred. In some disclosed examples, a field device can be synchronized with an electronic device and / or other field device(s) using a time protocol such as the Network Time Protocol (NTP), the Highway Addressable Remote Transducer (HART) protocol, etc., for enhanced data collection accuracy.

[0047] In some disclosed examples, a field device can report data values ​​at the beginning, end, and / or during a measurement phase. For example, a field device can report (i) a first data value representing a first pressure measurement, (ii) a first timestamp associated with the beginning of the measurement phase, and / or (iii) a second timestamp associated with the first pressure measurement. Advantageously, an electronic device receiving data from the field device can determine a change in the data based on the first pressure measurement and / or one (or more) of the timestamps.

[0048] In some disclosed examples, the field device may report and / or otherwise send data values ​​to the electronic device based on (multiple) data thresholds. For example, the field device may send a discrete event, such as an analog data value representing a logical zero or a logical one, based on whether the analog process parameter is above a threshold, below a threshold, or between (multiple) thresholds. In some disclosed examples, the field device may send a non-discrete event, such as a floating point event (e.g., a report based on a value in a 4 to 20 mA range, a value in a 0 to 5 V range, etc.), based on whether the analog process parameter is above a threshold, below a threshold, or between (multiple) thresholds. For example, the field device may send a current or voltage value to an electronic device based on determining that the current or voltage value is above a threshold (e.g., a current threshold, a voltage threshold, etc.), below a threshold, or between (multiple) thresholds.

[0049] In some disclosed examples, field devices can reduce and / or otherwise eliminate the occurrence of event storms. When multiple field devices generate events substantially simultaneously, event storms may occur in a process control network, thereby possibly filling the process control network with redundant network traffic. As an example, a fluid flow control component (e.g., a fluid pump having a first sensor) may be in a process having a first field device (e.g., a first valve having a first sensor) and a second field device (e.g., a second valve having a second sensor). The fluid flow control component may be subjected to and / or otherwise experience an event, such as a pressure spike of a fluid flowing through the fluid flow control component. The first field device and the second field device may also observe the same pressure spike relatively quickly after the fluid flow control component experiences the event. In some disclosed examples, the first field device and the second field device may receive an event from the fluid flow control component and ignore its own event generation to avoid filling the process control network with foreign, repeated or redundant events.

[0050] Turning to the attached figure, Figure 1 is an illustration of a first example process control system 100 observing events in a process control environment. For example, the first process control system 100 may be used to control and / or monitor process(es), operation(s), etc. in a process control environment such as a factory, a plant, etc. The first process control system 100 includes a first example fluid flow control assembly 102, a second example fluid flow control assembly 104, a first example field device 106, a second example field device 108, a first example input / output (I / O) card 110, a second example I / O card 112, an example controller 114, and an example computing system 116.

[0051] The illustrated example fluid flow control assemblies 102, 104 are process control valves, which may include an example actuator (e.g., a pneumatic actuator, a hydraulic actuator, etc.) 118, an example actuator 120, an example valve 122, an example valve 124, etc. The illustrated example fluid flow control assemblies 102, 104 include a respective one of the field devices 106, 108. The illustrated example field devices 106, 108 are electronic devices that monitor and / or control physical equipment in a process control environment, such as the fluid flow control assemblies 102, 104. For example, the first field device 106 may be a transmitter (e.g., a transmitter interface, a transmitter circuit, etc.) associated with the first valve 122 and / or more generally with a position sensor of the first fluid flow control assembly 102. In some examples, the first field device 106 can send a discrete value (e.g., a discrete data value), such as a current or voltage representing a logical zero or a logical one, to the first I / O card 110 based on whether the first valve 122 is open or closed. For example, the first field device 106 can send a first voltage of 10 volts direct current (VDC) based on a first determination that the first valve 122 is closed, and send a second voltage of 0 V based on a second determination that the first valve 122 is open.

[0052] In some examples, the second field device 108 can be a transmitter associated with a pressure sensor (e.g., a pressure transducer) of the second valve 124 and / or, more generally, a transmitter associated with the second fluid flow control assembly 104. For example, the second field device 108 can transmit a continuous or non-discrete value, such as a current or voltage within a range of current or voltage values, based on a pressure measurement from the pressure sensor.

[0053] The illustrated example first field device is coupled 106 to a first I / O card 110. The illustrated example second field device 108 is coupled to a second I / O card 112. The I / O cards 110, 112 may identify an example field event 126 at one (or more) of the fluid flow control assemblies 102, 104 based on changes in analog signals from the field devices 106, 108. For example, the field event 126 (or more generally, the event 126) may be a relatively rapid increase in pressure (e.g., a pressure spike) in a fluid flowing through at least one of the first valve 122 or the second valve 124.

[0054] The I / O cards 110 and 112 are electronic devices that convert analog signals from the field devices 106 and 108 into digital data that can be provided to the controller 114. For example, the I / O cards 110, 112, and the controller 114 can be coupled together on a backplane (e.g., a programmable logic controller (PLC) backplane) or a backplane system to enable data communication between the I / O cards 110, 112, and the controller 114. The controller 114 of the illustrated example communicates with a computing system 116. For example, the computing system 116 can be a server, a personal computer, a workstation, a laptop computer, a mobile device (e.g., a smart phone, a tablet computer, etc.), etc. In some examples, the computing system 116 can execute an application (e.g., a process control system application) to control and / or monitor the first process control system 100. In some examples, the application can include a graphical user interface (GUI) to facilitate interaction between a user (e.g., an engineer, a technician, a maintenance person, etc.) and the first process control system 100.

[0055] In an example operation, the field devices 106, 108 report discrete signals or analog signals to the I / O cards 110, 112, which in turn report changes in the values ​​of the discrete signals or analog signals to the controller 114. For example, the first field device 106 may send a first discrete signal, such as a voltage signal representing a logical one, to the first I / O card 110 at a first time. The first I / O card 110 may send first data representing a logical one to the controller 114. The controller 114 may time stamp the first data by generating a first timestamp. The controller 114 may send the first data and / or the first timestamp to the computing system 116.

[0056] In some examples, the first field device 106 may send a second discrete signal, such as a voltage signal representing a logic zero, to the first I / O card 110 at a second time after the first time. The first I / O card 110 may send second data representing a logic zero to the controller 114. The controller 114 may time stamp the second data by generating a second timestamp. The controller 114 may send the second data and / or the second timestamp to the computing system 116. The computing system 116 may generate a sequence of events based on the arrangement of the first data and the second data using the first timestamp and the second timestamp. For example, the sequence of events may include a first event, which may include the first data and the first timestamp, followed by a second event, which may include the second data and the second timestamp.

[0057] In some examples, the first process control system 100 includes a network of field devices that communicate with one (or more) of the field devices in each other using a network communication protocol (such as a communication protocol from the Internet Protocol Suite). For example, a network-enabled field device (e.g., a field device capable of sending and / or receiving data using a network communication protocol) can communicate with a controller such as the controller 114 without an I / O card such as the I / O card 110, the I / O card 112. In some examples, the network-enabled field device can send data to and / or receive data from the controller 114 via a network interface such as a network switch, an edge gateway, etc.

[0058] The above-mentioned Internet protocol suite may include TCP / IP (e.g., Ethernet or Ethernet protocol), UDP, etc. In some examples, the network of field devices may use an Ethernet-based protocol (such as Profinet) to communicate with the network of one (or more) field devices of each other. In some examples, the network of field devices may use any other type of communication protocol (such as Modbus, Profibus, controller area network (CAN), CANopen, CAN in Automation (CiA), a communication protocol based on the Society of Automotive Engineers standard SAE J1939 (e.g., J1939 communication protocol), etc.) to communicate with the network of one (or more) field devices of each other.

[0059] In some examples where the field devices 106, 108 are network devices (e.g., the field devices 106, 108 communicate with each other and / or with the controller 114 via a network communication protocol), if the controller 114 timestamps events when they are received by the controller 114, network latency and packet collisions may cause the events from the field devices 106, 108 to be recorded out of order by the controller 114. For example, a first field device 106 may generate a first event at a first time; the first field device 106 may send the first event to the controller 114 at a second time; the controller 114 may receive the first event at a third time; and the controller 114 may generate a first timestamp for the first event at a fourth time. In some examples, if the controller 114 records a second event from a second field device 108 with a timestamp that is before the first timestamp, even if the first event is before the second event, the time difference between the first time and the fourth time may cause an inaccurate generation of a sequence of events. For example, due to network latency, packet collisions, etc., the first event may arrive at the controller 114 later than the second event.

[0060] In some examples where the field devices 106, 108 are network devices, the field devices 106, 108 may be time synchronized with respect to the field devices 106, 108 to time stamp changes in their own signal values ​​(e.g., changes in discrete signal values, analog signal values, etc.) with high fidelity and communicate the timestamped values ​​to the controller 114. However, this mode of time synchronization may be limited to discrete field devices (e.g., the first field device 106) because the fidelity of the network-based analog field devices (e.g., the second field device 108) may not be able to report their analog signal values ​​within the desired rate. For example, the network-based analog field devices may have a data reporting rate ranging from once every 50 milliseconds (ms) to once per second, which may be too slow to achieve an accurate sequence of event generation.

[0061] Figure 2 2 is an illustration of a second example process control system 200 for observing events in a process control environment. For example, the second process control system 200 can be used to control and / or monitor process(es), operations(es), etc. in a process control environment such as a plant, a plant, etc. The second process control system 200 includes a third example fluid flow control assembly 202, a fourth example fluid flow control assembly 204, a third example field device 206, a fourth example field device 208, an example network switch 210, an example controller 214, and an example computing system 216. The third fluid flow control assembly 202 includes a third field device 206, a third example actuator 218, and a third example valve 222. The fourth fluid flow control assembly 204 includes a fourth field device 208, a fourth example actuator 220, and a fourth example valve 224.

[0062] In some examples, the third fluid flow control assembly 202, the third actuator 218, and the third valve 222 may be respectively connected to Figure 1 The first fluid flow control assembly 102, the first actuator 118 and the first valve 122 correspond to each other. In some examples, the fourth fluid flow control assembly 204, the fourth actuator 220 and the fourth valve 224 can correspond to each other. Figure 1 The second fluid flow control assembly 104, the second actuator 120 and the second valve 124 correspond to each other. In some examples, Figure 2 The controller 214 can be connected with Figure 1 In some examples, Figure 2 The computing system 216 can be connected with Figure 1 Corresponding to the computing system 116.

[0063] exist Figure 2In the illustrated example, the third field device 206 and the fourth field device 208 are network-based field devices. For example, the third field device 206 and the fourth field device 208 can communicate with each other based on a network communication protocol such as TCP / IP. In the illustrated example, the third field device 206 and the fourth field device 208 are communicatively coupled to each other via a network switch 210. In the illustrated example, the third field device 206 and / or the fourth field device 208 are communicatively coupled to the controller 214 via the network switch 210.

[0064] In some examples, the network switch 210 can be implemented by a switch (e.g., a network switch), a router (e.g., a network router), a gateway (e.g., a network gateway, an edge gateway, etc.), an access point (e.g., a wired access point, a wireless access point (WAP), etc.). For example, the network switch 210 can implement wired communication and / or wireless communication (e.g., wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi) communication, cellular communication, etc.). In some examples, at least one of the third field device 206, the fourth field device 208, the network switch 210, the controller 214, or the computing system 216 can implement a network (e.g., a computer network, a process control network, etc.). For example, the network can be implemented using any appropriate (multiple) wired and / or wireless networks, including, for example, one or more data buses, one or more local area networks (LANs), one or more wireless LANs (WLANs), one or more cellular networks, one or more private networks, one or more public networks, one or more optical networks, etc., and / or any (multiple) combinations thereof. Additionally and / or alternatively, the network can be implemented by the Internet.

[0065] In some examples, the third field device 206 can generate corresponding event(s) based on measurement(s) (e.g., sensor(s) measurements) associated with process(es), operation(s), etc. in the process control environment. For example, the third field device 206 can generate events based on the position of the third actuator 218, the third valve 222, etc. In some examples, the events can be implemented by data packets (e.g., one or more TCP / IP data packets, one or more Ethernet packets, etc.), messages (e.g., one or more data messages, one or more TCP / IP data messages, one or more Ethernet messages, etc.), etc. For example, the data packets / messages, etc. can include data (e.g., headers, payloads, etc.) such as logic zeros or logic ones based on whether the position of the third actuator 218 is open or closed. In some examples, the data packets / messages can include data such as analog current values ​​(e.g., analog current values ​​in the range of 0 to 20 mA, 4 to 20 mA, etc.), voltage values ​​(e.g., voltage values ​​in the range of 0 to 5 V or VDC, 0 to 10 V or VDC, etc.), etc. For example, the analog current value and / or voltage value may represent a logical zero or a logical one associated with an open / closed determination of the third actuator 218 , the third valve 222 , etc.

[0066] In some examples, the data packet / message may include identification information of the third field device 206, and / or more generally the third fluid flow control assembly 202. For example, the identification information may include an identifier (ID) of the third field device 206, the third actuator 218, the third valve 222, and / or more generally the third fluid flow control assembly 202. In some examples, the identification information may include a media access control (MAC) address, an IP address, an IP port, etc. associated with the third field device 206. In some examples, the data packet / message may include a sequence number of a quantitative or time interval. For example, the third field device 206 may increment the value of a counter at the beginning of each time interval and include the value of the counter in the generated event. In some examples, the data packet / message may include the type of the event. For example, the event may have the type of a general sensor data report, a fault report, a data report exceeding (multiple) thresholds, an alarm report, a prognostic health monitoring report, a maintenance required report, etc., and / or any (multiple) combination thereof.

[0067] In some examples, the third field device 206 can periodically generate and time stamp events. For example, at fixed quantitative or time intervals (e.g., every 5ms, 10ms, 25ms, 50ms, 100ms, 1 second (s), etc.), the third field device 206 can obtain sensor measurements from a position sensor monitoring the third valve 222; generate a timestamp; generate an event (e.g., data indicating whether the timestamp and / or the third valve 222 is open or closed) based on the sensor measurements and the timestamp; and cause the event to be sent to the controller 214 via the network switch 210. In some examples, the third field device 206 can generate a first timestamp at the beginning of the time interval and a second timestamp at the current time of the time interval (or at the end of the time interval). The third field device 206 can mark, indicate and / or otherwise associate the generated timestamps with the corresponding sensor measurements. Alternatively, the third field device 206 can generate events asynchronously or aperiodically (such as in response to a request for event generation from the controller 214).

[0068] Advantageously, the third field device 206 can generate a timestamp substantially simultaneously after capturing the sensor measurement to achieve improved accuracy with respect to an example in which the controller 214 generates a timestamp when an event is received from the field device (rather than when the event actually occurs). Advantageously, a receiving electronic system such as the controller 214 can determine the change(s) of the sensor measurement(s) associated with the third fluid flow control assembly 202 (and the associated time of the change(s)) based on the sensor measurement(s), the timestamp(s) included in the event, and / or the sequence number for the time interval. Advantageously, using the techniques described herein, the time synchronization between the field devices 206, 208 does not need to be relatively high. For example, a first resolution for time synchronization between the clock times of the field devices 206, 208 (e.g., 50ms, 100ms, etc.) can be greater than a second resolution for timestamping by each field device 206, 208 (e.g., 5ms, 10ms, etc.).

[0069] Advantageously, the examples described herein extend the sequence of events technique to analog process parameters, such as process parameters based on pressure sensor measurements, rate sensor measurements (e.g., fluid flow rate, pump speed, engine speed, etc.), temperature sensor measurements, etc. For example, the examples described herein can generate a sequence of events based on 0 to 20 mA and / or 4 to 20 mA analog signal values, 0 to 5 V and / or 0 to 10 V analog signal values, etc., which can correspond to a process parameter (e.g., a process parameter such as pressure, rate, temperature, etc.).

[0070] In some examples, the controller 214 and / or the computing system 216 can generate a sequence of events based on the analog signal using a threshold value. For example, the fourth field device 208 can generate corresponding (multiple) events based on (multiple) measurement results (e.g., (multiple) sensor measurements) associated with (multiple) processes, (multiple) operations, etc. in the process control environment, and send the (multiple) events to the controller 214 (and / or via the computing system 216 of the controller 214). The controller 214 and / or the computing system 216 can generate a sequence of events based on the events obtained from the field devices 206 and 208.

[0071] As an example, the fourth field device 208 can generate an event based on the pressure (or temperature or other parameter) of the fluid flowing through the fourth valve 224. In some examples, the event can be implemented by (multiple) data packets (e.g., one or more TCP / IP data packets, one or more Ethernet packets, etc.), (multiple) messages (e.g., one or more data messages, one or more TCP / IP data messages, one or more Ethernet messages, etc.), etc. In some examples, the data packet / message, etc. can include data (e.g., header, payload, etc.) such as a logical zero or a logical one based on whether the pressure is outside a defined threshold. For example, the fourth field device 208 can determine that a pressure sensor measurement of 500 pounds per square inch (PSI) from a pressure sensor monitoring the fourth valve 224 is greater than a threshold (e.g., a pressure threshold) of 250 PSI. In some examples, the fourth field device 208 can generate a discrete event including data representing a digital one to indicate that the pressure sensor measurement is outside the predefined threshold of 250 PSI. Alternatively, if the fourth field device 208 determines that the pressure sensor measurement is 150 PSI, the fourth field device 208 may generate a discrete event including data representing a digital zero to indicate that the pressure sensor measurement is within the predefined threshold of 250 PSI.

[0072] In some examples, the fourth field device 208 can use different thresholds for the same process parameter. For example, the fourth field device 208 can use a first threshold of 100PSI, a second threshold of 250PSI, a third threshold of 500PSI, etc. As an example, if the fourth field device 208 determines that the pressure sensor measurement result is 300PSI, the fourth field device 208 can generate (i) a first discrete event, the first discrete event includes data representing a digital one to indicate that the first threshold is met because 300PSI is greater than the first threshold of 100PSI, (ii) a second discrete event, the second discrete event includes data representing a digital one to indicate that the second threshold is met because 300PSI is greater than the second threshold of 250PSI. And / or (iii) a third discrete event, the third discrete event includes data representing a digital zero to indicate that the third threshold is not met because 300PSI is less than the third threshold of 500PSI.

[0073] In some examples, a first discrete event may include (i) a first timestamp corresponding to the start of a time interval, (ii) a second timestamp corresponding to the time at which the first discrete event occurred, and / or (iii) an analog signal value corresponding to 300 PSI (e.g., an analog signal of 8 mA for a 4 to 20 mA sensor). In some examples, a second discrete event may include (i) a first timestamp, (ii) a third timestamp corresponding to the time at which the second discrete event occurred, and / or (iii) an analog signal value. In some examples, a third discrete event may include (i) a first timestamp, (ii) a fourth timestamp corresponding to the time at which the third discrete event occurred, and / or (iii) an analog signal value.

[0074] In some examples, the fourth field device 208 can report a minimum and / or maximum value for a process control parameter. As an example, the fourth field device 208 can utilize a threshold value of 250PSI. The fourth field device 208 can generate a first timestamp associated with the beginning of a time interval or a measurement time phase. The fourth field device 208 can obtain sensor measurements throughout the measurement time phase. The fourth field device 208 can generate a second timestamp associated with the end of the time interval / measurement time phase. The fourth field device 208 can identify the minimum value of the fluid pressure of the fourth valve 224 and / or the maximum value of the fluid pressure of the fourth valve 224 from the first timestamp to the second timestamp. In some examples, the fourth field device 208 can identify the maximum value of the fluid pressure that exceeds the threshold value of 250PSI (e.g., 500PSI). In some examples, the fourth field device 208 can identify the minimum value of the fluid pressure that does not exceed the threshold value of 250PSI (e.g., 80PSI).

[0075] Figure 33 is an illustration of a third example process control system 300 for observing events in a process control environment. For example, the third process control system 300 can be used to control and / or monitor (multiple) processes, (multiple) operations, etc. in a process control environment such as a factory, a plant, etc. The third process control system 300 includes a fifth example fluid flow control assembly 302, a sixth example fluid flow control assembly 304, a seventh example fluid flow control assembly 330, a fifth example field device 306, a sixth example field device 308, a seventh example field device 332, an example network switch 310, an example I / O system 312, an example controller 314, and an example computing system 316. The fifth fluid flow control assembly 302 includes a fifth field device 306, a fifth example actuator 318, and a fifth example valve 322. The sixth fluid flow control assembly 304 includes a sixth field device 308, a sixth example actuator 320, and a sixth example valve 324. The seventh fluid flow control assembly 330 includes a seventh field device 332, a seventh example actuator 334, and a seventh example valve 336.

[0076] In some examples, the fifth fluid flow control assembly 302, the fifth field device 306, the fifth actuator 318, and the fifth valve 322 can be respectively connected to Figure 2 The third fluid flow control assembly 202, the third field device 206, the third actuator 218, and the third valve 222 of the embodiment of the present invention correspond to each other. In some examples, the sixth fluid flow control assembly 304, the sixth field device 308, the sixth actuator 320, and the sixth valve 324 can be respectively connected to Figure 2 The fourth fluid flow control assembly 204, the fourth field device 208, the fourth actuator 220 and the fourth valve 224 correspond to each other.

[0077] In some examples, the seventh actuator 334 may correspond to the first actuator 118, the second actuator 120, the third actuator 218, the fourth actuator 220, the fifth actuator 318, and / or the sixth actuator 320. In some examples, the seventh valve 336 may correspond to the first valve 122, the second valve 124, the third valve 222, the fourth valve 224, the fifth valve 322, and / or the sixth valve 324.

[0078] In some examples, Figure 3 The network switch 310 can be connected with Figure 2 In some examples, Figure 3 The controller 314 can be connected with Figure 1 The controller 114 and / or Figure 2 In some examples, Figure 3 The computing system 316 can be connected with Figure 1 The computing system 116 and / or Figure 2The computing system 216 corresponds to the computing system 216.

[0079] exist Figure 3 In the illustrated example, the fifth field device 306 and the sixth field device 308 are network-based field devices. For example, the fifth field device 306 and the sixth field device 308 can communicate with each other based on a network communication protocol such as TCP / IP. In the illustrated example, the fifth field device 306 and the sixth field device 308 are communicatively coupled to each other via a network switch 310. In the illustrated example, the fifth field device 306 and / or the sixth field device 308 are communicatively coupled to the controller 314 via the network switch 210.

[0080] exist Figure 3 In the illustrated example, the seventh field device 332 is a non-network-based field device. For example, the seventh field device 332 can send analog signals representing discrete and / or analog events to the I / O system 312 without using a network communication protocol such as TCP / IP. In some examples, the seventh field device 332 can send data to the I / O system 312 via a bus protocol (e.g., CAN bus, J1939 bus, Profibus, Modbus, etc.).

[0081] The I / O system 312 of the illustrated example includes one or more I / O cards that communicate with the controller 314 via a network communication protocol. For example, the seventh field device 332 can use Profibus to send data representing sensor measurements to the I / O system 312. The I / O system 312 can use Ethernet to send received data to the controller 314.

[0082] The (multiple) parts of the third process control system 300 are time synchronized. For example, the fifth field device 306, the sixth field device 308, the network switch 310 and / or the I / O system 312 can be time synchronized with one (multiple) of each other. The seventh field device 332 may not be time synchronized with the other (multiple) parts of the third process control system 300 because the seventh field device 332 is a non-network-based field device. For example, the seventh field device 332 can rely on the I / O system 312 to time synchronize with the controller 314. In some examples, the seventh field device 332 does not generate a timestamp associated with the sensor measurement result. For example, the I / O system 312 can generate a timestamp to indicate the time when the sensor measurement result is received by the I / O system 312 from the seventh field device 332.

[0083] Figure 4 is a block diagram of an example control circuit 400 that generates a sequence of events (multiple) obtained from a field device. In some examples, the control circuit 400 can implement Figure 1Controller 114, Figure 2 The controller 214 and / or Figure 3 Controller 314. Figure 4 The control circuit 400 may be instantiated (e.g., created as an instance, started for any length of time, materialized, implemented, etc.) by a processor circuit such as a central processing unit that executes instructions. Additionally or alternatively, Figure 4 The control circuit 400 can be instantiated (e.g., create an instance, start, concretize, implement, etc. for any length of time) by an ASIC or FPGA configured to perform operations corresponding to the instructions. It should be understood that Figure 4 Some or all of the control circuits 400 may thus be instantiated at the same or different times. Figure 4 Some or all of the control circuits in control circuit 400 may be instantiated, for example, in one or more threads that are executed concurrently in hardware and / or serially in hardware. Figure 4 Some or all of the control circuitry 400 may be implemented by a microprocessor circuit that executes instructions to implement one or more virtual machines and / or containers executing on the microprocessor.

[0084] The illustrated example control circuit 400 includes an example interface circuit 410, an example time synchronization circuit 420, an example device authentication circuit 430, an example subscriber group generation circuit 440, an example sequence of events generation circuit 450, an example data store 460, and an example bus 470. In this example, the data store 460 includes example field device configuration data 462 (identified by the field device configuration data), example sensor measurement data 464, and example sequence of events data 466. Figure 4 In the illustrated example, the interface circuit 410, the time synchronization circuit 420, the device authentication circuit 430, the subscriber group generation circuit 440, the sequence generation circuit 450 of events, and the data storage 460 communicate with one or more of each other via a bus 470. For example, the bus 470 can be implemented by at least one of an inter-integrated circuit (I2C) bus, a serial peripheral interface (SPI) bus, a peripheral component interconnect (PCI) bus, or a peripheral component interconnect express (PCIe or PCIE) bus. Additionally or alternatively, the bus 470 can be implemented by any other type of computing or electrical bus.

[0085] Figure 4 The control circuit 400 of the illustrated example includes an interface circuit 410 that obtains a digital signal from a field device in a process control system. In some examples, the digital signal is a signal based on a network communication protocol such as TCP / IP. For example, the interface circuit 410 can obtain a digital signal from a field device such as a TCP / IP network. Figure 3The fifth field device 306 and / or the sixth field device 308 of the present invention obtains, receives, etc. a digital signal representing a TCP / IP data packet, message, etc. In some examples, the interface circuit 410 is configured to execute interface instructions and / or is configured to perform operations such as by Fig. 9 , Fig.10 , Fig.11 , Fig.13 and / or Fig.15 The processor circuit 410 is instantiated by the operations represented by the flowchart of those operations. In some examples, when no trip condition or event is identified (for example, no event is generated or occurs in the third process control system 300), the interface circuit 410 obtains a digital signal from a field device in the process control system. For example, even if (multiple) events do not occur in the third process control system 300, the interface circuit 410 can periodically obtain a digital signal from at least one of the fifth field device 306, the sixth field device 308, or the seventh field device 332. Advantageously, when analyzing subsequent events, this collection of (multiple) digital signals in the absence of events is beneficial. Advantageously, by analyzing the digital signals (which can represent sensor measurements) previously obtained during the time period that caused the subsequent event, it can be used to identify (multiple) root causes of the subsequent event.

[0086] In some examples, the interface circuit 410 obtains a first digital signal from a first field device in a process control system, the first digital signal representing a first sensor data value marked with a first timestamp, the first timestamp being generated by the first field device. For example, the fifth field device 306 may generate a first timestamp associated with the start of a measurement phase. The fifth field device 306 may obtain a position sensor measurement associated with the position of the fifth valve 322. The fifth field device 306 may generate a second timestamp and mark the position sensor measurement with the second timestamp. The fifth field device 306 may generate a first TCP / IP message including the position sensor measurement, the first timestamp, and / or the second timestamp. The fifth field device 306 may send a first TCP / IP message to the controller 314 via the network switch 310. For example, the interface circuit 410 may store the position sensor measurement, the first timestamp, the second timestamp, and / or more generally, the first TCP / IP message as sensor measurement data 464 in the data storage 460.

[0087] In some examples, the interface circuit 410 obtains a second digital signal from a second field device in the process control system, the second digital signal representing a second sensor data value marked with a second timestamp, and the second timestamp is generated by the second field device. For example, the sixth field device 308 can generate a third timestamp associated with the start of the measurement phase. In some examples, the third timestamp can be the same as the first timestamp because the first clock of the fifth field device 306 can be synchronized with the second clock of the sixth field device 308. The sixth field device 308 can obtain a pressure sensor measurement result associated with the fluid pressure of the sixth valve 324. The sixth field device 308 can generate a fourth timestamp and mark the pressure sensor measurement result with the fourth timestamp. The sixth field device 308 can generate a second TCP / IP message including the pressure sensor measurement result, the third timestamp and / or the fourth timestamp. The sixth field device 308 can send a second TCP / IP message to the controller 314 via the network switch 310. For example, interface circuit 410 may store the pressure measurement, the third timestamp, the fourth timestamp, and / or, more generally, the second TCP / IP message as sensor measurement data 464 in data store 460 .

[0088] In some examples, the interface circuit 410 obtains a third digital signal from the I / O system, the third digital signal representing a third sensor data value marked with a third timestamp, and the third timestamp is generated by the I / O system. For example, the seventh field device 332 can obtain a pressure sensor measurement associated with the fluid pressure of the seventh valve 336. The seventh field device 332 can send an analog signal representing the pressure sensor measurement to the I / O system 312. The I / O system 312 can generate a fifth timestamp associated with the start of the measurement phase. In some examples, the fifth timestamp can be the same as the first timestamp and / or the third timestamp because the third clock of the I / O system 312 can be synchronized with the first clock of the fifth field device 306 and / or the second clock of the sixth field device 308. The I / O system 312 can generate a sixth timestamp and mark the pressure sensor measurement with the sixth timestamp, and the sixth timestamp corresponds to the time when the I / O system 312 receives the pressure sensor measurement from the seventh field device 332. I / O system 312 may generate a third TCP / IP message including the pressure sensor measurement, the fifth timestamp, and / or the sixth timestamp. I / O system 312 may send the third TCP / IP message to controller 314. For example, interface circuit 410 may store the pressure measurement, the fifth timestamp, the sixth timestamp, and / or, more generally, the third TCP / IP message as sensor measurement data 464 in data storage 460.

[0089] In some examples, the interface circuit 410 obtains sensor measurement result data from (multiple) subscription field devices associated with the field device based on the event subscription ID. For example, the fifth field device 306 can be a signaling field device (or publisher field device), and the sixth field device 308 can be a subscriber field device. In some examples, the signaling field device can be a field device that sends events to (multiple) electronic devices such as field devices, controllers, network switches, I / O systems, etc. In some examples, the subscriber field device can be a field device associated with the signaling field device. For example, the signaling field device and the subscriber field device can be field devices in the same process, operation, etc. in a process control system. For example, the signaling field device can be a field device that obtains a pressure measurement result associated with a valve, and the subscriber field device can be a field device that controls a safety or emergency shutdown system associated with a valve. In some examples, the signaling field device and the subscriber field device can be associated with each other based on the event subscription ID. For example, the event subscription ID may be an alphanumeric data value stored in at least one of the controller 314, the network switch 310, the fifth field device 306, the sixth field device 308, or the I / O system 312. In some examples, in response to a signaling field device such as the fifth field device 306 generating and / or sending an event, the interface circuit 410 may obtain sensor measurement data from the sixth field device 308 (which may be a subscriber field device to the fifth field device 306).

[0090] In some examples, the interface circuit 410 determines whether to continue monitoring the process control system. For example, the interface circuit 410 may determine whether to continue obtaining events from at least one of the fifth field device 306 , the sixth field device 308 , or the I / O system 312 .

[0091] Figure 4 The illustrated example control circuit 400 includes a time synchronization circuit 420 that synchronizes clocks of electronic devices in a process control system. For example, the fifth field device 306 may have a first clock (e.g., a clock generator, a processor clock, a processor clock generator, etc.), the sixth field device 308 may have a second clock, the I / O system 312 may have a third clock, and the controller 314 may have a fourth clock. In some examples, the time synchronization circuit 420 may synchronize the first clock, the second clock, the third clock, and / or the fourth clock with one (or more) of each other. For example, the time synchronization circuit 420 may utilize any synchronization mode or time protocol, such as the Network Time Protocol (NTP), the Highway Addressable Remote Transducer (HART) protocol, etc. In some examples, the time synchronization circuit 420 is instantiated by a processor circuit that executes time synchronization instructions and / or is configured to execute instructions such as those executed by Fig. 9 , Fig.10 , Fig.11 , Fig.13 and / or Fig.15 The operations represented by the flowchart.

[0092] Figure 4 The control circuit 400 of the illustrated example includes a device authentication circuit 430 for authenticating a field device. In some examples, the device authentication circuit 430 can authenticate a field device to join a process control system. For example, the device authentication circuit 430 can authenticate and / or otherwise authorize access to the fifth field device 306, the sixth field device 308, and / or the I / O system 312 to join the third process control system 300. In some examples, the device authentication circuit 430 can authenticate the field device based on security or encryption techniques such as symmetric key encryption techniques, asymmetric key encryption techniques, and / or any (multiple) combinations thereof. For example, the device authentication circuit 430 can authenticate the fifth field device 306, the sixth field device 308, and / or the I / O system 312 via the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) technique, the Asymmetric Encryption Algorithm (RSA) encryption technique, the Triple Data Encryption Standard (DES) technique, and / or any (multiple) combinations thereof. In some examples, the device authentication circuit 430 is instantiated by a processor circuit that executes device authentication instructions and / or is configured to execute instructions such as by Fig. 9 , Fig.10 , Fig.11 , Fig.13 and / or Fig.15 The operations represented by the flowchart.

[0093] Figure 4 The control circuit 400 of the illustrated example includes a subscriber group generation circuit 440 that generates a subscriber group (e.g., a field device subscriber group, an electronic device subscriber group, etc.) based on a publisher / subscriber model. In some examples, the subscriber group generation circuit 440 selects a field device in the process control system for processing. For example, the subscriber group generation circuit 440 can select the fifth field device 306 for processing, such as determining whether the fifth field device 306 is a subscriber field device of other (multiple) field devices in the third process control system 300. In some examples, the subscriber group generation circuit 440 is instantiated by a processor circuit that executes a subscriber group generation instruction and / or is configured to execute instructions such as Fig. 9 , Fig.10 , Fig.11 , Fig.13 and / or Fig.15 The operations represented by the flowchart.

[0094] In some examples, the subscriber group generation circuit 440 determines whether the field device is associated with other field devices (multiple). For example, the subscriber group generation circuit 440 can determine that the fifth field device 306 is associated with the sixth field device 308. In some examples, the subscriber group generation circuit 440 can determine that the fifth field device 306 is associated with the sixth field device 308 based on a process control plan, schematic, configuration, etc. that identifies the fifth field device 306 and the sixth field device 308 as belonging to the same process, operation, etc. of the third process control system 300. For example, the subscriber group generation circuit 440 can identify the fifth field device 306 as a subscriber field device and the sixth field device 308 as a publisher field device (e.g., the fifth field device 306 subscribes to events published by the sixth field device 308).

[0095] In some examples, the subscriber group generation circuit 440 generates an event subscription ID to identify the field device as a subscriber of other (multiple) field devices. For example, the subscriber group generation circuit 440 can generate an event subscription ID indicating that the fifth field device 306 is a subscriber field device of the sixth field device 308. In some examples, the subscriber group generation circuit 440 can generate an event subscription ID as a randomly generated alphanumeric value. In some examples, the subscriber group generation circuit 440 can generate an event subscription ID based on data associated with the fifth field device 306 and / or the sixth field device 308. For example, the subscriber group generation circuit 440 can generate an event subscription ID based on providing a corresponding MAC address, IP address, field device identifier, etc. as input to a cryptographic hash function to generate a hash output (which can be an event subscription ID). In some examples, the subscriber group generation circuit 440 can generate an event subscription ID as a connection of a data value, such as a connection of a first MAC address (or a portion of a first MAC address) of the fifth field device 306 and a second MAC address (or a portion of a second MAC address) of the sixth field device 308.

[0096] In some examples, the subscriber group generation circuit 440 determines whether to select another field device in the process control system for processing. For example, the subscriber group generation circuit 440 can determine to select the sixth field device 308 for processing, such as determining whether the sixth field device 308 is a subscriber field device of other (multiple) field devices in the third process control system 300.

[0097] In some examples, the subscriber group generation circuit 440 sends configuration data including an event subscription ID to the (multiple) field devices, which identifies the (multiple) field devices as (multiple) subscribers to the other (multiple) field devices. For example, the subscriber group generation circuit 440 can generate an event subscription ID that associates the fifth field device 306 and the sixth field device 308. In some examples, the subscriber group generation circuit 440 can store the configuration data including the event subscription ID in at least one of the controller 314, the network switch 310, the I / O system 312, the fifth field device 306, or the sixth field device 308. In some examples, the subscriber group generation circuit 440 can store the event subscription ID and / or more generally, the configuration data as field device configuration data 462 in the data storage 460.

[0098] In some examples, the subscriber group generation circuit 440 determines whether the field device broadcasts an event including an event subscription ID. For example, the subscriber group generation circuit 440 can determine that the fifth field device 306 generates an event including an event subscription ID that identifies the sixth field device 308 as a subscriber field device to the fifth field device 306.

[0099] Figure 4The control circuit 400 of the illustrated example includes a sequence of events generation circuit 450 that generates a sequence of events associated with a process control system. In some examples, the sequence of events generation circuit 450 stores a data association of a first sensor data value and a second sensor data value in a data store, the data association representing a sequence of events associated with the process control system, and the sequence of events includes an order of the first sensor data value and the second sensor data value based on a first timestamp of the first sensor data value and a second timestamp of the second sensor data value. For example, the sequence of events generation circuit 450 can obtain a first event including a first sensor data measurement result and (multiple) first timestamps from the fifth field device 306. In some examples, the sequence of events generation circuit 450 can obtain a second event including a second sensor data measurement result and (multiple) second timestamps from the sixth field device 308. In some examples, the sequence of events generation circuit 450 can generate a sequence of events including an order of the first event and the second event based on a temporal order of the (multiple) first timestamps and the (multiple) second timestamps. In some examples, the sequence of events generation circuit 450 can generate a curve, a graph, a timeline, etc., or any other type of data structure or representation of a sequence of events based on the first event and the second event. For example, the sequence of events generation circuit 450 can store the sequence of events as sequence of events data 466 in the data store 460. In some examples, the sequence of events generation circuit 450 is instantiated by a processor circuit that executes sequence of events generation instructions and / or is configured to perform operations such as by Fig. 9 , Fig.10 , Fig.11 , Fig.13 and / or Fig.15 The flowchart represents those operations.

[0100] In some examples, the sequence of events generation circuit 450 analyzes digital signals that are not associated with an event. For example, the interface circuit 410 may obtain a first digital signal representing a first sensor data value from the fifth field device 306 and obtain a second digital signal representing a second sensor data value from the sixth field device 308. In some such examples, the first digital signal and the second digital signal are not associated with an event. In some examples, the sequence of events generation circuit 450 may determine that at least one of the first sensor data value or the second sensor data value indicates an abnormal condition associated with at least one of the fifth field device 306 or the sixth field device 308. For example, the sequence of events generation circuit 450 may compare the first sensor data value with a baseline sensor data value; determine that the first sensor data value deviates from the baseline sensor data value by a threshold amount; and identify the first sensor data value as indicating an abnormal, abnormal, irregular, and / or other atypical condition of the fifth field device 306 and / or more generally the fifth fluid flow control assembly 302.

[0101] In some examples, after identifying the abnormal condition, the sequence of events generation circuit 450 can generate and / or store metadata and a data association of the first sensor data value (and / or the second sensor data value) in the data storage 460 as sensor measurement result data 464 and / or sequence of events data 466. For example, the sequence of events generation circuit 450 can generate metadata to identify at least one of the first sensor data value or the second sensor data value as being associated with the abnormal condition. In some examples, the metadata can be a tag (e.g., a data tag) or any other type of data descriptor. Advantageously, the sequence of events generation circuit 450 can identify at least one of the first sensor data value or the second sensor data value for subsequent analysis or review. For example, after identifying an event related to the fifth field device 306, the sequence of events generation circuit 450 can identify at least one of the first sensor data value or the second sensor data value based on the metadata to identify the potential cause(s) of the event.

[0102] Figure 4The control circuit 400 of the illustrated example includes a data storage 460 for recording data such as field device configuration data 462, sensor measurement data 464, and sequence data 466 of events. The data storage 460 may be implemented by a volatile memory (e.g., synchronous dynamic random access memory (SDRAM), dynamic random access memory (DRAM), RAMBUS dynamic random access memory (RDRAM), etc.) and / or a non-volatile memory (e.g., flash memory). The data storage 460 may additionally or alternatively be implemented by one or more double data rate (DDR) memories such as DDR, DDR2, DDR3, DDR4, DDR5, mobile DDR (mDDR), DDR SDRAM, etc. The data storage 460 may additionally or alternatively be implemented by one or more mass storage devices such as (multiple) hard disk drives (HDD), (multiple) compact disk (CD) drives, (multiple) digital versatile disk (DVD) drives, (multiple) solid state disk (SSD) drives, (multiple) secure digital (SD) cards, (multiple) compact flash (CF) cards, etc.). Although data store 460 is illustrated as a single data store in the illustrated example, data store 460 may be implemented by any number and / or type of data stores. In addition, the data stored in data store 460 may be in any data format, such as, for example, binary data, comma-delimited data, tag-delimited data, structured query language (SQL) structures, etc.

[0103] The data storage 460 of the illustrated example includes field device configuration data 462. In some examples, the field device configuration data 462 may be data used to configure electronic devices in a process control system such as the controller 314, the I / O system 312, the network switch 310, the fifth field device 306, the sixth field device 308, the seventh field device 332, etc. For example, the field device configuration data 462 may configure the fifth field device 306 to obtain measurement results from the sensor of the fifth fluid flow control assembly 302 at a specified sampling rate, send the measurement results to the controller 314 at a specified transmission rate, etc. In some examples, the field device configuration data 462 may configure one (or more) of the field devices 306, 308, and 332 as a subscriber field device or a publisher / signaling field device. For example, the field device configuration data 462 can configure the fifth field device 306 as a publisher field device, a subscriber field device to the sixth field device 308 and / or the seventh field device 332 (e.g., the seventh field device 332 via the I / O system 312), etc., and / or any combination(s) thereof.

[0104] The data store 460 of the illustrated example includes sensor measurement data 464 that enables sequence generation of events for a process control system, such as the third process control system 300. In some examples, the sensor measurement data 464 may include data packets, messages, and the like, which may include sensor measurements, timestamps, and the like. In some examples, the sensor measurement data 464 may include process parameter values, such as pressure values ​​(e.g., 50 PSI, 100 PSI, 500 PSI, and the like), fluid flow rate values ​​(e.g., 5 cubic meters per minute, 10 barrels per minute, and the like), temperature values ​​(e.g., 30 degrees Celsius, 85 degrees Fahrenheit, and the like), and the like. In some examples, the sensor measurement data 464 may include analog signal values ​​corresponding to process parameter values, such as values ​​of current or voltage signals.

[0105] The illustrated example data store 460 includes sequence data 466 of events that implement diagnostic activities and / or implement process control safety protocols. For example, the sequence data 466 of events may include multiple events arranged in a sequence based on their respective timestamps. Advantageously, personnel associated with the process control system, such as engineers, maintenance technicians, safety coordinators, etc., can examine the sequence of events based on the sequence data 466 of events to identify (multiple) root causes of events, failures, unforeseen or unexpected results or consequences, etc. Advantageously, personnel can implement mitigation measures, remediation efforts, etc. to address (multiple) root causes and / or prevent their recurrence.

[0106] In some examples, the data storage 460 can implement one or more databases that can store field device configuration data 462, sensor measurement data 464, and / or sequence data 466 of events. The term "database" used herein means an organization of related data, regardless of the way the data or its organization is represented. For example, the organization of related data can be in the form of one or more of a table, map, grid, packet, datagram, frame, file, email, message, document, report, list, or any other form. The term "data" used herein means any sign, signal, mark, symbol, domain, symbol set, representation, and any other physical form or multiple physical forms representing information, whether permanent or temporary, whether visible, audible, acoustic, electrical, magnetic, electromagnetic, or other manifestations. The term "data" used to represent predetermined information in a physical form should be considered to cover any and all representations of corresponding information in different physical forms or multiple physical forms.

[0107] Although in Figure 4 The implementation is shown in the figure Figure 1 Controller 114, Figure 2 The controller 214 and / or Figure 3The example method of the controller 314, however Figure 4 One or more of the elements, processes and / or devices illustrated in the may be combined, divided, rearranged, omitted, eliminated and / or implemented in any other manner. In addition, the interface circuit 410, the time synchronization circuit 420, the device authentication circuit 430, the subscriber group generation circuit 440, the sequence generation circuit 450 of the event, the data storage 460, the bus 470, and / or more generally, Figure 1 Controller 114, Figure 2 Controller 214, and / or Figure 3 The controller 314 may be implemented by hardware alone or by a combination of hardware and software and / or firmware. Thus, for example, the interface circuit 410, the time synchronization circuit 420, the device authentication circuit 430, the subscriber group generation circuit 440, the sequence of events generation circuit 450, the data storage 460, the bus 470, and / or more generally, Figure 1 Controller 114, Figure 2 The controller 214 and / or Figure 3 Any of the examples of controller 314 may be implemented by a processor circuit, analog circuit(s), digital circuit(s), logic circuit(s), programmable processor(s), programmable microcontroller(s), graphics processing unit(s) (GPU(s), digital signal processor(s) (DSP(s), application specific integrated circuit(s) (ASIC(s), programmable logic device(s) (PLD(s), and / or field programmable logic device(s) (FPLD(s)) such as a field programmable gate array (FPGA). In addition, Figure 1 Controller 114, Figure 2 The controller 214 and / or Figure 3 Examples of controller 314 may include one or more components, processes, and / or devices as Figure 4 The elements, processes and / or devices illustrated may be in addition to or in place of those illustrated, and / or may include multiples of any or all of the illustrated elements, processes and devices.

[0108] In some examples, the control circuit 400 includes a device for obtaining a digital signal from a field device. For example, the device for obtaining can be implemented by an interface circuit 410. In some examples, the interface circuit 410 can be implemented by a device such as Fig.17 The interface circuit 410 may be instantiated by a processor circuit of the example processor circuit 1712 of FIG. Fig.19 The execution of machine-executable instructions (such as those provided by Fig. 9 , Fig.10 , Fig.11 , Fig.13 and / or Fig.15The interface circuit 410 may be instantiated by an example microprocessor 1900 that implements at least those machine-executable instructions of blocks 902, 904, 1006, 1008, 1010, 1116, 1120, 1302, 1318, 1322, 1502, 1514, and 1518 of the present invention. In some examples, the interface circuit 410 may be instantiated by a hardware logic circuit that may be implemented by an ASIC, an XPU, or a processor that is configured to perform operations corresponding to the machine-readable instructions. Fig. 20 The interface circuit 410 may be implemented by any other combination of hardware, software, and / or firmware. Additionally or alternatively, the interface circuit 410 may be instantiated by any other combination of hardware, software, and / or firmware. For example, the interface circuit 410 may be implemented by at least one or more hardware circuits (e.g., processor circuits, discrete and / or integrated analog and / or digital circuits, FPGAs, ASICs, XPUs, comparators, operational amplifiers (op-amps), logic circuits, etc.), gateways, switches, transmitters, receivers, transceivers, etc., that are configured to execute some or all machine-readable instructions and / or execute some or all operations corresponding to machine-readable instructions without executing software or firmware (but other structures are equally appropriate).

[0109] In some examples, the control circuit 400 includes means for synchronizing a clock associated with a field device. For example, the means for synchronizing can be implemented by a time synchronization circuit 420. In some examples, the time synchronization circuit 420 can be implemented by, for example, Fig.17 For example, the time synchronization circuit 420 may be implemented by a processor circuit of the example processor circuit 1712 of FIG. Fig.19 The execution of machine-executable instructions (such as those provided by Fig.10 In some examples, the time synchronization circuit 420 may be instantiated by a hardware logic circuit, which may be an ASIC, an XPU, or a processor configured to perform operations corresponding to the machine-readable instructions. Fig. 20 The FPGA circuit 2000 is implemented. Additionally or alternatively, the time synchronization circuit 420 can be instantiated by any other combination of hardware, software and / or firmware. For example, the time synchronization circuit 420 can be implemented by at least one or more hardware circuits (e.g., processor circuits, discrete and / or integrated analog and / or digital circuits, FPGAs, ASICs, XPUs, comparators, operational amplifiers (op-amps), logic circuits, etc.), which are configured to execute some or all machine-readable instructions and / or execute some or all operations corresponding to the machine-readable instructions without executing software or firmware, but other structures are equally appropriate.

[0110] In some examples, the control circuit 400 includes a device for authenticating a field device to join the process control system. For example, the device for authenticating can be implemented by a device authentication circuit 430. In some examples, the device authentication circuit 430 can be implemented by, for example, Fig.17 For example, the device authentication circuit 430 may be implemented by a processor circuit of the example processor circuit 1712 of FIG. Fig.19 The execution of machine-executable instructions (such as those provided by Fig.11 In some examples, device authentication circuit 430 may be instantiated by hardware logic circuitry, which may be implemented by an ASIC, XPU, or other processor configured to perform operations corresponding to the machine-readable instructions. Fig. 20 FPGA circuit 2000. Additionally or alternatively, device authentication circuit 430 may be instantiated by any other combination of hardware, software, and / or firmware. For example, device authentication circuit 430 may be implemented by at least one or more hardware circuits (e.g., processor circuits, discrete and / or integrated analog and / or digital circuits, FPGAs, ASICs, XPUs, comparators, operational amplifiers (op-amps), logic circuits, etc.), which are configured to execute some or all machine-readable instructions and / or execute some or all operations corresponding to machine-readable instructions without executing software or firmware, but other structures are equally appropriate.

[0111] In some examples, the control circuit 400 includes means for creating and / or establishing a subscriber group of field devices and / or I / O systems associated with the process control system. For example, the means for creating and / or establishing may be implemented by a subscriber group generation circuit 440. In some examples, the subscriber group generation circuit 440 may be implemented by, for example, Fig.17 For example, the subscriber group generation circuit 440 may be instantiated by a processor circuit of the example processor circuit 1712 of FIG. Fig.19 The execution of machine-executable instructions (such as those provided by Fig.11 In some examples, the subscriber group generation circuit 440 may be instantiated by a hardware logic circuit, which may be an ASIC, an XPU, or a processor configured to perform operations corresponding to the machine-readable instructions. Fig. 20FPGA circuit 2000. Additionally or alternatively, subscriber group generation circuit 440 may be instantiated by any other combination of hardware, software, and / or firmware. For example, subscriber group generation circuit 440 may be implemented by at least one or more hardware circuits (e.g., processor circuits, discrete and / or integrated analog and / or digital circuits, FPGA, ASIC, XPU, comparator, operational amplifier (op-amp), logic circuit, etc.), which are configured to execute some or all machine-readable instructions and / or execute some or all operations corresponding to machine-readable instructions without executing software or firmware, but other structures are equally appropriate.

[0112] In some examples, the control circuit 400 includes means for generating a sequence of events. For example, the means for generating can be implemented by a sequence of events generation circuit 450. In some examples, the sequence of events generation circuit 450 can be implemented by, for example, Fig.17 The example processor circuit 1712 of the example processor circuit is instantiated. For example, the sequence generation circuit 450 of the event can be composed of Fig.19 The execution of machine-executable instructions (such as those provided by Fig. 9 , Fig.10 , Fig.11 , Fig.13 and / or Fig.15 In some examples, the subscriber group generation circuit 440 may be instantiated by a hardware logic circuit, which may be an ASIC, an XPU, or a processor configured to perform operations corresponding to the machine-readable instructions. Fig. 20 FPGA circuit 2000. Additionally or alternatively, the sequence generation circuit 450 of events may be instantiated by any other combination of hardware, software, and / or firmware. For example, the sequence generation circuit 450 of events may be implemented by at least one or more hardware circuits (e.g., processor circuits, discrete and / or integrated analog and / or digital circuits, FPGAs, ASICs, XPUs, comparators, operational amplifiers (op-amps), logic circuits, etc.), which are configured to execute some or all machine-readable instructions and / or execute some or all operations corresponding to machine-readable instructions without executing software or firmware, but other structures are equally appropriate.

[0113] In some examples, the control circuit 400 includes means for storing data. For example, the means for storing can be implemented by data storage 460. In some examples, the means for storing can be implemented by a computer such as Fig.17The example processor circuit 1712 of the example processor circuit 1712 is instantiated. For example, the data storage 460 can be instantiated by Fig.19 The execution of machine-executable instructions (such as those provided by Fig. 9 , Fig.10 and / or Fig.11 In some examples, data store 460 may be instantiated by hardware logic circuitry, which may be implemented by an ASIC, XPU, or other processor configured to perform operations corresponding to the machine-readable instructions. Fig. 20 FPGA circuit 2000. Additionally or alternatively, data storage 460 may be instantiated by any other combination of hardware, software, and / or firmware. For example, sequence generation circuit 450 of data storage 460 events may be implemented by at least one or more hardware circuits (e.g., processor circuits, discrete and / or integrated analog and / or digital circuits, FPGAs, ASICs, XPUs, comparators, operational amplifiers (op-amps), logic circuits, etc.), which are configured to execute some or all machine-readable instructions and / or execute some or all operations corresponding to machine-readable instructions without executing software or firmware, but other structures are equally appropriate.

[0114] Figure 5 1 is a block diagram of a field device circuit 500 that generates events to implement sequence generation of events associated with a process control system. In some examples, the field device circuit 500 can implement the third field device 206, the fourth field device 208, the fifth field device 306, the sixth field device 308, and / or the seventh field device 332. In some examples, the field device circuit 500 can implement the I / O system 312. Figure 5 The field device circuit 500 may be instantiated (e.g., created as an instance, started for any length of time, materialized, implemented, etc.) by a processor circuit such as a central processing unit that executes instructions. Additionally or alternatively, Figure 5 The field device circuit 500 can be instantiated (e.g., created, started for any length of time, materialized, implemented, etc.) by an ASIC or FPGA configured to perform operations corresponding to the instructions. It should be understood that Figure 5 Some or all of the field device circuits 500 may thus be instantiated at the same or different times. Figure 5 Some or all of the field device circuits 500 of the field device circuits may be instantiated, for example, in one or more threads that are executed concurrently in hardware and / or serially in hardware. Additionally, in some examples, Figure 5Some or all of the field device circuitry 500 may be implemented by a microprocessor circuit that executes instructions to implement one or more virtual machines and / or containers executing on the microprocessor.

[0115] The illustrated example field device circuit 500 includes an example interface circuit 510, an example time synchronization circuit 520, an example timestamp recording circuit 530, an example measurement recording circuit 540, an example data storage 550, and an example bus 560. In this example, the data storage 550 includes example field device configuration data 552, example sensor measurement data 554, and example threshold data 556. Figure 5 In the illustrated example, the interface circuit 510, the time synchronization circuit 520, the timestamp recording circuit 530, the measurement result recording circuit 540, and the data storage 550 communicate with one (or more) of each other via a bus 560. For example, the bus 560 may be implemented by an I2C bus, an SPI bus, a PCI bus, or at least one of a PCIe or PCIE bus. Additionally or alternatively, the bus 560 may be implemented by any other type of computing or electrical bus.

[0116] Figure 5 The illustrated example field device circuit 500 includes an interface circuit 510 for sending data to and / or receiving data from an electronic device (such as one (or more) of the field device 306, the field device 308, the field device 332, the network switch 310, the controller 314, and / or the I / O system 312). In some examples, the interface circuit 510 uses a network communication protocol such as TCP / IP (e.g., via the network switch 310) to send data including a timestamp and a digital value from a field device such as the fifth field device 306 to an electronic device such as the controller 314. In some examples, the interface circuit 510 causes a sequence of events associated with the field device to be generated based on the data. For example, in response to sending the timestamp and the digital value to the controller 314, the controller 314 can generate a sequence of events associated with the fifth field device 306 based on (i) a digital value associated with a sensor measurement result of the fifth field device 306 and (ii) a timestamp associated with the sensor measurement result. In some examples, the interface circuit 510 is executed by executing interface instructions and / or is configured to perform operations such as by Fig.12 , Fig.13 , Fig.14 , Fig.15 and / or Fig.16 The operations represented by the flowchart are instantiated by a processor circuit.

[0117] In some examples, the interface circuit 510 sends sensor measurement data, such as minimum and / or maximum values ​​of the sensor measurement data, to the controller 314. For example, the interface circuit 510 can cause the controller 314 to generate a sequence of events associated with the fifth field device 306 by sending the minimum and / or maximum values ​​of the sensor measurements from the fifth field device 306 to the controller 314.

[0118] In some examples, the interface circuit 510 publishes and / or otherwise broadcasts an event (e.g., event data) to (multiple) electronic devices in the process control system. For example, the interface circuit 510 can determine that the sixth field device 308 is a subscriber (e.g., data subscriber, event subscriber, etc.) of the fifth field device 306 based on the field device configuration data 552. In some examples, the interface circuit 510 can generate an event, which can include sensor measurement result data, (multiple) associated timestamps, an event subscription identifier that identifies the sixth field device 308 as a subscriber of the fifth field device 306, etc. In some examples, the interface circuit 510 can broadcast the event to (multiple) subscribing field devices, such as the sixth field device 308 and / or the controller 314, via the network switch 310.

[0119] Figure 5 The illustrated example field device circuit 500 includes a time synchronization circuit 520 that synchronizes clocks of electronic devices in a process control system. For example, the fifth field device 306 may have a first clock (e.g., a clock generator, a processor clock, a processor clock generator, etc.), the sixth field device 308 may have a second clock, the I / O system 312 may have a third clock, and the controller 314 may have a fourth clock. In some examples, the time synchronization circuit 520 may synchronize the first clock, the second clock, the third clock, and / or the fourth clock with one (or more) of each other. For example, the time synchronization circuit 520 may utilize any synchronization mode or time protocol, such as the Network Time Protocol (NTP), the Highway Addressable Remote Transducer (HART) protocol, etc. In some examples, the time synchronization circuit 520 is instantiated by a processor circuit that executes time synchronization instructions and / or is configured to execute instructions such as those executed by Fig. 9 , Fig.10 , Fig.11 , Fig.13 and / or Fig.15 The operations represented by the flowchart.

[0120] Figure 5The illustrated example field device circuit 500 includes a timestamp recording circuit 530 that records a timestamp associated with a time when an event is observed, identified, and / or detected by an electronic device. In some examples, the timestamp recording circuit 530 can annotate, mark, label, and / or otherwise associate sensor measurements, signal values, etc. with a timestamp determined by a clock (e.g., a clock generator) of the electronic device that measured the sensor measurements, signal values, etc. In some examples, the timestamp recording circuit 530 is instantiated by a processor circuit that executes timestamp recording instructions and / or is configured to perform operations such as by Fig.12 , Fig.13 , Fig.14 , Fig.15 and / or Fig.16 The operations represented by the flowchart.

[0121] In some examples, the timestamp recording circuit 530 can record a first timestamp at the field device at the beginning of the measurement phase. In some examples, the timestamp recording circuit 530 can record a second timestamp at the field device during the measurement phase. In some examples, the timestamp recording circuit 530 can record a third timestamp at the field device at the end or conclusion of the measurement phase.

[0122] Figure 5 The illustrated example field device circuit 500 includes a measurement recording circuit 540 that measures and / or otherwise obtains measurements (e.g., data measurements, sensor measurements, etc.) from sensors in a process control system. In some examples, the measurement recording circuit 540 records digital values ​​based on sensor measurements associated with timestamps at the field device. For example, the measurement recording circuit 540 may obtain an analog signal value of 8 mA from a sensor of the fifth fluid flow control assembly 302. In some examples, the measurement recording circuit 540 may convert the analog signal value of 8 mA to a binary value, a hexadecimal value, etc. Alternatively, the measurement recording circuit 540 may convert a parameter value corresponding to 8 mA (such as a pressure measurement value of 500 PSI) to a corresponding binary value, a hexadecimal value, etc. In some examples, the measurement recording circuit 540 may encode the binary value, the hexadecimal value, etc. into a digital signal that may be sent to an electronic device, such as a controller 314, using TCP / IP. In some examples, the measurement result recording circuit 540 is instantiated by a processor circuit that executes measurement result recording instructions and / or is configured to perform operations such as Fig.12 , Fig.13 , Fig.14 , Fig.15 and / or Fig.16 The operations represented by the flowchart.

[0123] In some examples, the measurement result recording circuit 540 determines whether a measurement phase associated with the field device is triggered. For example, the measurement result recording circuit 540 can determine that the fifth field device 306 is configured (e.g., based on the field device configuration data 552) to obtain sensor measurements from the sensor every 10 ms. In some examples, the measurement result recording circuit 540 can determine to trigger the measurement phase based on determining that 10 ms have passed since the previous measurement phase. In some examples, the measurement result recording circuit 540 can record the minimum and / or maximum values ​​of the sensor measurements during the measurement phase (e.g., between a first timestamp at the beginning of the measurement phase and a second timestamp at the end of the measurement phase).

[0124] In some examples, the measurement result recording circuit 540 obtains (multiple) sensor measurements at the beginning of the measurement phase, during the measurement phase, and / or at the end of the measurement phase. For example, the measurement result recording circuit 540 can record a first digital value based on a first sensor measurement at the beginning of the measurement phase, a second digital value based on a second sensor measurement during the measurement phase, and / or a third digital value based on a third sensor measurement at the end of the measurement phase.

[0125] In some examples, the measurement result recording circuit 540 determines whether the sensor measurement meets the threshold. For example, the measurement result recording circuit 540 can compare the pressure sensor measurement of 500PSI with a threshold (e.g., a data threshold, a pressure threshold, etc.) of 1000PSI. In some examples, the measurement result recording circuit 540 can determine that the pressure sensor measurement of 500PSI does not meet the threshold of 1000PSI because 500PSI is less than 1000PSI. In some examples, the measurement result recording circuit 540 can determine that the pressure sensor measurement of 1500PSI meets the threshold of 500PSI because 1500PSI is greater than 500PSI.

[0126] In some examples, the measurement result recording circuit 540 can determine that the sensor measurement meets the threshold because the sensor measurement is less than the threshold. For example, the measurement result recording circuit 540 can determine that a temperature measurement of 15 degrees Celsius meets a threshold (e.g., a data threshold, a temperature threshold) of 25 degrees Celsius because 15 degrees Celsius is less than 25 degrees Celsius. In some examples, the measurement result recording circuit 540 can identify the threshold based on a query of (multiple) applicable thresholds in the threshold data 556. "Threshold" as used herein is represented as data, such as a numerical value represented in any form, which can be used by a processor circuit as a reference for comparison operations.

[0127] In some examples, the measurement result recording circuit 540 can determine that the field device will generate an event. For example, the measurement result recording circuit 540 can detect a change in the sensor measurement result of the sensor from the fifth fluid flow control assembly 302. In some examples, the measurement result recording circuit 540 can determine that the sensor measurement result deviates beyond an expected value, changes by more than a threshold amount, etc. In some examples, the measurement result recording circuit 540 can determine to generate an event after determining that the detected change in the sensor measurement result will be broadcast to the (multiple) parts of the process control system. For example, the measurement result recording circuit 540 can call the interface circuit 510 to broadcast the event to the (multiple) subscribing field devices of the fifth field device 306.

[0128] In some examples, the measurement result recording circuit 540 can determine whether to continue monitoring the electronic device and / or more generally, the process control system including the electronic device. For example, the measurement result recording circuit 540 can determine to continue monitoring the fifth field device 306 because the field device configuration data 552 indicates that the fifth field device 306 publishes sensor measurements every 20 ms.

[0129] Figure 5 The illustrated example field device circuit 500 includes a data store 550 that records data, such as field device configuration data 552, sensor measurement data 554, and threshold data 556. In some examples, Figure 5 The field device configuration data 552 can be used with Figure 4 In some examples, Figure 5 The sensor measurement result data 554 can be compared with Figure 4 4. In some examples, threshold data 556 may include one or more thresholds that may be utilized by the processor circuit for comparison operation(s).

[0130] The data storage 550 may be implemented by a volatile memory (e.g., SDRAM, DRAM, RDRAM, etc.) and / or a non-volatile memory (e.g., flash memory). The data storage 550 may be additionally or alternatively implemented by one or more DDR memories (such as DDR, DDR2, DDR3, DDR4, DDR5, mDDR, DDR SDRAM, etc.). The data storage 550 may be additionally or alternatively implemented by one or more mass storage devices (such as (multiple) HDDs, (multiple) CD drives, (multiple) DVD drives, (multiple) SSD drives, (multiple) SD cards, (multiple) CF cards, etc.). Although the data storage 550 is illustrated as a single data storage in the illustrated example, the data storage 550 may be implemented by any number and / or (multiple) types of data storage. In addition, the data stored in the data storage 550 may be in any data format, such as, for example, binary data, comma-delimited data, tag-delimited data, SQL structures, etc.

[0131] Although in Figure 5 The implementation is shown in the figure Figure 2 The third field device 206, Figure 2 The fourth field device 208, Figure 3 The fifth field device 306, Figure 3 The sixth field device 308, Figure 3 The seventh field device 332 and / or Figure 3 An example of an I / O system 312, but Figure 5 One or more of the elements, processes and / or devices illustrated in the diagram may be combined, divided, rearranged, omitted, eliminated and / or implemented in any other manner. In addition, the interface circuit 510, the time synchronization circuit 520, the timestamp recording circuit 530, the measurement result recording circuit 540, the data storage 550, the bus 560, and / or more generally, Figure 2 The third field device 206, Figure 2 The fourth field device 208, Figure 3 The fifth field device 306, Figure 3 The sixth field device 308, Figure 3 The seventh field device 332 and / or Figure 3 The I / O system 312 may be implemented by hardware alone or by a combination of hardware and software and / or firmware. Thus, for example, the interface circuit 510, the time synchronization circuit 520, the time stamp recording circuit 530, the measurement result recording circuit 540, the data storage 550, the bus 560, and / or more generally, Figure 2 The third field device 206, Figure 2 The fourth field device 208, Figure 3 The fifth field device 306, Figure 3 The sixth field device 308, Figure 3 The seventh field device 332 and / or Figure 3 Any of the I / O systems 312 may be implemented by processor circuits, analog circuits, digital circuits, logic circuits, programmable processors, programmable microcontrollers, GPUs, DSPs, ASICs, PLDs, and / or FPLDs such as FPGAs. In addition, Figure 2 The third field device 206, Figure 2 The fourth field device 208, Figure 3 The fifth field device 306, Figure 3 The sixth field device 308, Figure 3 The seventh field device 332 and / or Figure 3 The I / O system 312 may include one or more components, processes, and / or devices as Figure 5 The elements, processes and / or devices illustrated may be in addition to or in place of those illustrated, and / or may include multiples of any or all of the illustrated elements, processes and devices.

[0132] In some examples, the field device circuit 500 includes means for sending a digital signal from the field device and / or means for causing a digital signal to be sent from the field device. For example, the means for sending and / or the means for causing can be implemented by the interface circuit 510. In some examples, the interface circuit 510 can be implemented by, for example, Fig.18 The interface circuit 510 may be instantiated by a processor circuit of the example processor circuit 1812 of FIG. Fig.19 The execution of machine-executable instructions (such as those provided by Fig.12 , Fig.13 , Fig.14 , Fig.15 and / or Fig.16 The interface circuit 510 may be instantiated by an example microprocessor 1900 that implements at least those machine-executable instructions of blocks 1206, 1208, 1310, 1316, 1320, 1410, 1418, 1512, 1516, 1604, 1606, 1608, and 1610 of the present invention. In some examples, the interface circuit 510 may be instantiated by hardware logic circuitry that may be implemented by an ASIC, an XPU, or a processor that is configured to perform operations corresponding to the machine-readable instructions. Fig. 20The interface circuit 510 is implemented by the FPGA circuit 2000 of the embodiment of the present invention. Additionally or alternatively, the interface circuit 510 can be instantiated by any other combination of hardware, software and / or firmware. For example, the interface circuit 510 can be implemented by at least one or more hardware circuits (e.g., processor circuits, discrete and / or integrated analog and / or digital circuits, FPGAs, ASICs, XPUs, comparators, operational amplifiers (op-amps), logic circuits, etc.), gateways, switches, transmitters, receivers, transceivers, etc., which are configured to execute some or all machine-readable instructions and / or execute some or all operations corresponding to machine-readable instructions without executing software or firmware (but other structures are also suitable).

[0133] In some examples, the field device circuit 500 includes a means for synchronizing the clocks of the field device and / or the I / O system. For example, the means for synchronizing can be implemented by a time synchronization circuit 520. In some examples, the time synchronization circuit 520 can be implemented by, for example, Fig.18 For example, the time synchronization circuit 520 may be implemented by a processor circuit of the example processor circuit 1812 of FIG. Fig.19 The execution of machine-executable instructions (such as those provided by Fig.10 In some examples, the time synchronization circuit 520 may be instantiated by a hardware logic circuit, which may be an ASIC, an XPU, or a processor configured to perform operations corresponding to the machine-readable instructions. Fig. 20 The FPGA circuit 2000 is implemented. Additionally or alternatively, the time synchronization circuit 520 can be instantiated by any other combination of hardware, software and / or firmware. For example, the time synchronization circuit 520 can be implemented by at least one or more hardware circuits (e.g., processor circuits, discrete and / or integrated analog and / or digital circuits, FPGAs, ASICs, XPUs, comparators, operational amplifiers (op-amps), logic circuits, etc.), gateways, switches, transmitters, receivers, transceivers, etc., that are configured to execute some or all machine-readable instructions and / or execute some or all operations corresponding to machine-readable instructions without executing software or firmware (but other structures are equally appropriate).

[0134] In some examples, the field device circuit 500 includes a first means for recording and / or a first means for measuring a timestamp. For example, the first means for recording and / or the first means for measuring can be implemented by a timestamp recording circuit 530. In some examples, the timestamp recording circuit 530 can be implemented by, for example, Fig.18 For example, the timestamp recording circuit 530 may be implemented by the processor circuit of the example processor circuit 1812 of FIG. Fig.19The execution of machine-executable instructions (such as those provided by Fig.12 and / or Fig.13 In some examples, the timestamp recording circuit 530 may be instantiated by a hardware logic circuit, which may be an ASIC, an XPU, or a processor configured to perform operations corresponding to the machine-readable instructions. Fig. 20 The timestamp recording circuit 530 is implemented by the FPGA circuit 2000 of the embodiment. Additionally or alternatively, the timestamp recording circuit 530 can be instantiated by any other combination of hardware, software and / or firmware. For example, the timestamp recording circuit 530 can be implemented by at least one or more hardware circuits (e.g., processor circuits, discrete and / or integrated analog and / or digital circuits, FPGAs, ASICs, XPUs, comparators, operational amplifiers (op-amps), logic circuits, etc.), gateways, switches, transmitters, receivers, transceivers, etc., that are constructed to execute some or all machine-readable instructions and / or execute some or all operations corresponding to machine-readable instructions without executing software or firmware (but other structures are equally appropriate).

[0135] In some examples, the field device circuit 500 includes a second means for recording and / or a means for sensing the measurement result. For example, the second means for recording and / or the means for sensing can be implemented by the measurement result recording circuit 540. In some examples, the measurement result recording circuit 540 can be implemented by, for example, Fig.18 The measurement result recording circuit 540 may be instantiated by the processor circuit of the example processor circuit 1812 of FIG. Fig.19 The execution of machine-executable instructions (such as those provided by Fig.12 , Fig.13 , Fig.14 , Fig.15 and / or Fig.16 In some examples, the measurement result recording circuit 540 may be instantiated by a hardware logic circuit that may be implemented by an ASIC, an XPU, or a processor configured to perform operations corresponding to the machine-readable instructions. Fig. 20The FPGA circuit 2000 is implemented. Additionally or alternatively, the measurement result recording circuit 540 can be instantiated by any other combination of hardware, software and / or firmware. For example, the measurement result recording circuit 540 can be implemented by at least one or more hardware circuits (e.g., processor circuits, discrete and / or integrated analog and / or digital circuits, FPGAs, ASICs, XPUs, comparators, operational amplifiers (op-amps), logic circuits, etc.), gateways, switches, transmitters, receivers, transceivers, etc., which are constructed to execute some or all machine-readable instructions and / or execute some or all operations corresponding to machine-readable instructions without executing software or firmware (but other structures are also appropriate).

[0136] In some examples, the field device circuit 500 includes means for storing (eg, second means for storing). For example, the means for storing can be implemented by a data store 550. In some examples, the data store 550 can be implemented by, for example, a Fig.18 The example processor circuit 1812 of the example processor circuit 1812 is instantiated. For example, the data storage 550 can be instantiated by Fig.19 The execution of machine-executable instructions (such as those provided by Fig.12 , Fig.13 and / or Fig.15 In some examples, the data store 550 may be instantiated by hardware logic circuitry, which may be implemented by an ASIC, XPU, or other processor configured to perform operations corresponding to the machine-readable instructions. Fig. 20 FPGA circuit 2000. Additionally or alternatively, data storage 550 may be instantiated by any other combination of hardware, software, and / or firmware. For example, data storage 550 may be implemented by at least one or more hardware circuits (e.g., processor circuits, discrete and / or integrated analog and / or digital circuits, FPGAs, ASICs, XPUs, comparators, operational amplifiers (op-amps), logic circuits, etc.), gateways, switches, transmitters, receivers, transceivers, etc., that are configured to execute some or all machine-readable instructions and / or execute some or all operations corresponding to machine-readable instructions without executing software or firmware (but other structures are equally appropriate).

[0137] Figure 6 A first graph 600 depicts the value of an example digital signal with respect to time. In some examples, the value of the digital signal is represented by a number such as Figure 3The fifth field device 306, the sixth field device 308, the seventh field device 332, and / or the electronic device of the I / O system 312 may generate and / or otherwise output. For example, the fifth field device 306 may determine that the digital signal from the position sensor of the fifth fluid flow control assembly 302 represents a logical zero (identified by a digital signal value of 0 in the first diagram 600) or a logical one (identified by a digital signal value of 1 in the first diagram 600).

[0138] As an example, the fifth field device 306 can determine that the fifth valve 322 is closed at a first time (identified by the first timestamp T1 in the first diagram 600) based on monitoring the position sensor of the fifth valve 322 outputting a logical one. In some examples, the fifth field device 306 can send a first event to the controller 314 via the network switch 310, the first event can include the value of the first timestamp T1 and the first digital signal value representing a logical one. As another example, the fifth field device 306 can determine that the fifth valve 322 is open from a second time (identified by T2 in the first diagram 600) to a sixth time (identified by T6 in the first diagram 600). In some examples, the fifth field device 306 can send a second event to the controller 314 via the network switch 310, the second event can include the value of the second timestamp T2 and the second digital signal value representing a logical zero. Advantageously, the controller 314 can generate a sequence of events based on the first digital signal value, the first timestamp, the second digital signal value, and the second timestamp. For example, the controller 314 may generate a sequence of events including a change in the value of a digital signal from a logic one at a first timestamp to a logic zero at a second timestamp.

[0139] Figure 7 A second graph 700 of an example analog signal over time is depicted. In some examples, the value of the analog signal is represented by a number such as Figure 3The electronic device of the fifth field device 306, the sixth field device 308, the seventh field device 332, and / or the I / O system 312 may generate and / or otherwise output. As an example, the sixth field device 308 may determine that a first example analog signal value 702 (e.g., a current signal, a voltage signal, etc.) from the pressure sensor of the sixth fluid flow control assembly 304 at a first time (identified by the first timestamp T1 in the second graph 700) is below an example threshold 704. For example, the threshold 704 may be 16 mA, and the first analog signal value 702 is 6 mA. In some examples, the first analog signal value 702 may correspond to a first pressure measurement of 100 PSI, and the threshold 704 may correspond to a pressure threshold of 250 PSI. In some examples, the sixth field device 308 may send a first event to the controller 314 via the network switch 310, and the first event may include the value of the first timestamp T1 and the first analog signal value 702. Alternatively, the sixth field device 308 may transmit the first event to include the value of the first timestamp T1 and a digital value (eg, a logical zero) corresponding to the first analog signal value 702 being below the threshold value 704 .

[0140] As another example, the sixth field device 308 can determine that a second example analog signal value 706 from a pressure sensor of the sixth fluid flow control assembly 304 at a second time (identified by a second timestamp T9 in the second graph 700) is above a threshold value 704. For example, the threshold value 704 can be 16 mA, and the second analog signal value 706 can be 18 mA. In some examples, the second analog signal value 706 can correspond to a second pressure measurement of 300 PSI, and the threshold value 704 can correspond to a pressure threshold of 250 PSI. For example, the second analog signal value 706 of 18 mA and the second pressure measurement of 300 can satisfy the threshold value 704 of 16 mA and 250 PSI, respectively. In some examples, the sixth field device 308 can send a second event to the controller 314 via the network switch 310, and the second event can include the value of the second timestamp T9 and the second analog signal value 706. Alternatively, the sixth field device 308 may transmit a second event to include the value of the second timestamp T9 and an example digital value 708 (eg, a logical one) corresponding to the second analog signal value 706 being above the threshold 704 .

[0141] Advantageously, the controller 314 can generate a sequence of events based on the first analog signal value 702, the first timestamp, the second analog signal value 706, and the second timestamp. For example, the controller 314 can generate a sequence of events including a change in the analog signal value from 8 mA at T1 to 18 mA at T9. In some examples, the controller 314 can generate a sequence of events including a change in the digital signal value from a logic zero at T1 to a logic one at T9.

[0142] Figure 8 Depicts the Figure 2 The second process control system 200 and / or Figure 3 800 of an example sequence of events associated with an example process control system of the third process control system 300. In some examples, Figure 2 The network switch 210, controller 214, and / or computing system 216 may generate, create, aggregate, and / or otherwise output a sequence of events 800 (or more generally, a sequence of events, a sequence of process events, or a sequence of process control events). In some examples, Figure 3 The network switch 310, controller 314, and / or computing system 316 may generate, create, aggregate, and / or otherwise output a sequence 800 of events. In some examples, Figure 4 The sequence of events of the generation circuit 450 and / or more generally, the control circuit 400 can generate, create, aggregate and / or otherwise output the sequence of events 800. In some examples, Figure 5 The interface circuit 510 and / or more generally the field device circuit 500 may cause and / or otherwise invoke the sequence of events 800 to be generated, created, aggregated, and / or otherwise output.

[0143] Figure 8 The illustrated example sequence of events 800 includes a plurality of example events 802 (denoted by E1-E 13 For example, events 802 may be identified based on their corresponding example timestamps 804 (indicated by T1-T 13 The events 802 of the illustrated example may include, correspond to, and / or otherwise represent event data. For example, the event data may include an event identifier (e.g., an event identifier of E1), an event type (e.g., an event type of E1), an identifier of a field device that generated the event, a sensor measurement result, a network identifier (e.g., an IP address and / or port, a MAC address, etc.), etc., and / or any (multiple) combinations thereof. In some examples, the events 802 and / or more generally, the sequence of events 800 may be stored in a data store, such as Figure 4 Sequence data 466 of events in data store 460 .

[0144] As an example, the first event (identified by E1) in events 802 may represent Figure 2The first sensor measurement of the sensor of the third fluid flow control assembly 202. The first event in the events 802 can be marked, labeled and / or otherwise associated with a first timestamp in the timestamps 804 (identified by T1). Advantageously, the first timestamp in the timestamps 804 and / or more generally, the timestamps 804 can be generated by a field device and / or I / O system that observes the corresponding event in the events 802 to achieve improved accuracy of the sequence of events 800. As an example, an example fault 806 (e.g., Figure 2 The seal rupture in the third valve 222, bursting disk, etc.) may have occurred between T3 and T4. Advantageously, the sequence of events generation circuit 450 and / or more generally, the control circuit 400, can determine the potential root cause(s) of the fault 806 by analyzing and / or examining events (such as E1, E2, E3) preceding the fault 806. Advantageously, the sequence of events generation circuit 450 and / or more generally, the control circuit 400 can improve the operation of the process control system by identifying the root cause(s) of the fault(s) and implementing mitigation or preventive measures to avoid similar potential defects in the process control system.

[0145] exist Fig. 9 , Fig.10 , Fig.11 , Fig.13 and / or Figure 5 A flowchart representing example machine readable instructions that may be executed to configure a processor circuit to implement Figure 4 The machine-readable instructions may be for use by a processor circuit (such as the following in conjunction with Fig.17 The processor circuit 1712 shown in the example processor platform 1700 discussed below and / or in combination with Fig.19 and / or Fig. 20 One or more executable programs or portions of executable programs executed by the example processor circuit discussed.

[0146] Figures 12 to 16 A flowchart representing example machine readable instructions that may be executed to configure a processor circuit to implement Figure 5 The machine-readable instructions may be for use by a processor circuit (such as the following in combination with Fig.18 The processor circuit 1812 shown in the example processor platform 1800 discussed below and / or in combination with Fig.19 and / or Fig. 20 One or more executable programs or portions of executable programs executed by the example processor circuit discussed.

[0147] The program(s) may be embodied in software stored on one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media (such as CDs, floppy disks, HDDs, SSDs, DVDs, Blu-ray disks, volatile memory (e.g., any type of random access memory (RAM), etc.) or non-volatile memory (e.g., electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), flash memory, HDDs, SSDs, etc.) associated with a processor circuit located in one or more hardware devices, but the entire program and / or portions thereof may alternatively be executed by one or more hardware devices other than the processor circuit and / or embodied in firmware or dedicated hardware. The machine-readable instructions may be distributed across multiple hardware devices and / or executed by two or more hardware devices (e.g., a server and a client hardware device). For example, a client hardware device may be implemented by an endpoint client hardware device (e.g., a hardware device associated with a user) or an intermediate client hardware device (e.g., a radio access network (RAN), a network switch, a network gateway, etc.) that may facilitate communication between a server and an endpoint client hardware device. Similarly, a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium may include one or more media located in one or more hardware devices. In addition, although reference is made to Fig. 9 , Fig.10 , Fig.11 , Fig.12 , Fig.13 , Fig.14 , Fig.15 and / or Fig.16 The flowcharts illustrated in FIG. 1 describe example procedures (multiple), but alternatively may be implemented using Figure 4 An example control circuit 400 and / or Figure 5 Many other methods of field device circuit 500 of the present invention can be implemented. For example, the order of execution of the boxes can be changed, and / or some of the boxes in the described boxes can be changed, eliminated or combined. Additionally or alternatively, any or all of the boxes can be implemented by one or more hardware circuits (e.g., processor circuits, discrete and / or integrated analog and / or digital circuits, FPGAs, ASICs, comparators, operational amplifiers (op-amps), logic circuits, etc.), which are configured to perform corresponding operations without executing software or firmware. The processor circuits can be distributed in different network locations and / or local to one or more hardware devices (e.g., single-core processors (e.g., single-core central processing units (CPUs)), multi-core processors in a single machine (e.g., multi-core CPUs, XPUs, etc.), multiple processors distributed across multiple servers in a server rack, multiple processors distributed across one or more server racks, CPUs and / or FPGAs located in the same package (e.g., the same integrated circuit (IC) package) or in two or more separate housings, etc.).

[0148] The machine-readable instructions described herein may be stored in one or more of a compressed format, an encrypted format, a segmented format, a compiled format, an executable format, a packaged format, etc. The machine-readable instructions described herein may be stored as data or data structures (e.g., as part of instructions, code, code representations, etc.) that may be used to create, manufacture, and / or generate machine-executable instructions. For example, the machine-readable instructions may be segmented and stored on one or more storage devices and / or computing devices (e.g., servers) located in the same or different locations of a network or collection of networks (e.g., in the cloud, in edge devices, etc.). The machine-readable instructions may require one or more of installation, modification, adaptation, updating, combination, supplementation, configuration, decryption, decompression, unpacking, distribution, redistribution, compilation, etc., so that they are directly readable, interpretable, and / or executable by a computing device and / or other machine. For example, machine-readable instructions may be stored in multiple portions that are individually compressed, encrypted, and / or stored on separate computing devices, where the portions, when decrypted, decompressed, and / or combined, form a set of machine-executable instructions that implement one or more operations that together may form a program such as described herein.

[0149] In another example, the machine-readable instructions may be stored in a state in which they can be read by a processor circuit, but require the addition of a library (e.g., a dynamic link library (DLL)), a software development kit (SDK), an application programming interface (API), etc., in order to execute the machine-readable instructions on a particular computing device or other device. In another example, the machine-readable instructions may need to be configured (e.g., stored settings, data inputs, recorded network addresses, etc.) before the machine-readable instructions and / or corresponding program(s) can be executed in whole or in part. Thus, as used herein, a machine-readable medium may include machine-readable instructions and / or program(s) regardless of the particular format or state in which the machine-readable instructions and / or program(s) are stored or otherwise stationary or transported.

[0150] The machine-readable instructions described herein may be represented by any past, present, or future instruction language, scripting language, programming language, etc. For example, the machine-readable instructions may be represented using any of the following languages: C, C++, Java, C#, Perl, Python, JavaScript, Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), SQL, Swift, etc.

[0151] As mentioned above, Figures 9 to 16The example operations of can be implemented using executable instructions (e.g., computer and / or machine readable instructions) stored on one or more non-transitory computer and / or machine readable media (such as optical storage devices, magnetic storage devices, HDDs, flash memory, read-only memory (ROM), CDs, DVDs, caches, any type of RAM, registers, and / or any other storage device or storage disk in which information is stored for any duration (e.g., for an extended period of time, permanently, for brief instances, for temporary buffering, and / or for caching of information). As used herein, the terms non-transitory computer readable medium, non-transitory computer readable storage medium, non-transitory machine readable medium, and non-transitory machine readable storage medium are expressly defined to include any type of computer readable storage device and / or storage disk and exclude propagating signals and exclude transmission media. As used herein, the terms "computer readable storage device" and "machine readable storage device" are defined to include any physical (mechanical and / or electrical) structure to store information, but exclude propagating signals and exclude transmission media. Examples of computer-readable storage devices and machine-readable storage devices include any type of random access memory, any type of read-only memory, solid-state memory, flash memory, optical disks, magnetic disks, disk drives, and / or redundant arrays of independent disks (RAID) systems. As used herein, the term "device" refers to a physical structure such as mechanical and / or electrical equipment, hardware, and / or circuitry that may or may not be configured by computer-readable instructions, machine-readable instructions, etc., and / or manufactured to execute computer-readable instructions, machine-readable instructions, etc.

[0152] "Include" and "comprising" (and all forms and tenses thereof) are used herein as open-ended terms. Thus, whenever a claim employs any form of "includes" or "comprising" (e.g., comprises, includes, comprising, including, having, etc.) as a preamble or within any kind of claim statement, it should be understood that additional elements, terms, etc. may be present without falling outside the scope of the corresponding claim or statement. As used herein, when the phrase "at least" is used as a transitional term, such as in the preamble of a claim, it is open-ended in the same manner as the terms "includes" and "comprising" are open-ended. The term "and / or," when used, for example, in a form such as A, B, and / or C, refers to any combination or subset of A, B, and C, such as (1) A alone, (2) B alone, (3) C alone, (4) A and B, (5) A and C, (6) B and C, or (7) A and B and C. As used herein in the context of describing structures, components, items, objects, and / or things, the phrase "at least one of A and B" is intended to refer to implementations that include any of (1) at least one A, (2) at least one B, or (3) at least one A and at least one B. Similarly, as used herein in the context of describing structures, components, items, objects, and / or things, the phrase "at least one of A or B" is intended to refer to implementations that include any of (1) at least one A, (2) at least one B, or (3) at least one A and at least one B. As used herein in the context of describing the implementation or execution of processes, instructions, actions, activities, and / or steps, the phrase "at least one of A and B" is intended to refer to implementations that include any of (1) at least one A, (2) at least one B, or (3) at least one A and at least one B. Similarly, as used herein in the context of describing the implementation or execution of processes, instructions, actions, activities, and / or steps, the phrase "at least one of A or B" is intended to refer to implementations that include any of (1) at least one A, (2) at least one B, or (3) at least one A and at least one B.

[0153] As used herein, singular references (e.g., "one," "first," "second," etc.) do not exclude a plurality. The term "one" or "an" object used herein refers to one or more objects of the object. The terms "one" (or "an"), "one or more," and "at least one" are used interchangeably herein. In addition, although listed separately, multiple devices, elements, or method actions can be implemented by, for example, the same entity or object. Additionally, although individual features may be included in different examples or claims, these features may possibly be combined, and inclusion in different examples or claims does not imply that the combination of features is not feasible and / or disadvantageous.

[0154] Fig. 9 is a flow diagram representative of example machine readable instructions and / or example operations 900 that may be executed and / or instantiated by a processor circuit to generate a sequence of events associated with a process control system. Fig. 9 The example machine readable instructions and / or example operations 900 begin at block 902, where the control circuit 400 obtains a first digital signal from a first field device in a process control system, the first digital signal representing a first sensor data value marked with a first timestamp, the first timestamp to be generated by the first field device. For example, the interface circuit 410 ( Figure 4 ) can obtain a first digital signal based on a TCP / IP data format from the third field device 206 via the network switch 210. In some examples, the first digital signal can correspond to first data indicating whether the third valve 222 is open or closed. In some examples, the first data can include a first timestamp generated by the third field device 206, and the first timestamp is associated with the open / closed position of the third valve 222. For example, the interface circuit 410 can store the first data or part(s) thereof as sensor measurement result data 464 in the data storage 460.

[0155] At block 904, the control circuit 400 obtains a second digital signal from a second field device in the process control system, the second digital signal representing a second sensor data value marked with a second timestamp, the second timestamp to be generated by the second field device. For example, the interface circuit 410 can obtain a second digital signal based on a TCP / IP data format from the fourth field device 208 via the network switch 210. In some examples, the second digital signal can correspond to second data indicating whether the pressure measurement result of the fluid flowing through the fourth valve 224 is open or closed. In some examples, the second data can include a second timestamp generated by the fourth field device 208, the second timestamp being associated with the pressure measurement result of the fourth valve 224. For example, the interface circuit 410 can store the second data or a portion thereof as sensor measurement result data 464 in the data storage 460.

[0156] At block 906, the control circuit 400 stores a data association of the first sensor data value and the second sensor data value in a data store, the data association representing a sequence of events associated with the process control system, the sequence of events including an order of the first sensor data value and the second sensor data value based on the first timestamp and the second timestamp. For example, the sequence of events generation circuit 450 ( Figure 4 ) can generate a sequence of events 800 based on the first timestamp, the open / closed position of the third valve 222, the second timestamp, and the pressure measurement. In some examples, the sequence of events can include the order of the open / closed position of the third valve 222 at the first timestamp followed by the pressure measurement of the fourth valve 224 at the second timestamp. For example, the sequence of events generation circuit 450 can store the sequence of events as sequence data 466 of events in the data store 460. In some examples, the sequence of events can be implemented by the data association of the first timestamp, the open / closed position of the third valve 222, the second timestamp, and the pressure measurement in the data store 460 as the sequence data 466 of events.

[0157] Advantageously, the sequence of events generation circuitry 450 and / or personnel associated with the second process control system 200 may identify a root cause of a problem associated with the third field device 206 and / or the fourth field device 208 based on the sequence of events. For example, the problem may be a bursting disk in the fourth valve 224, and the root cause of the problem may be an unintentional opening of the third valve 222. In some examples, the sequence of events generation circuitry 450 may identify a root cause based on the sequence of events. In response to storing the data association of the first sensor data value and the second sensor data value in the data store at block 906, Fig. 9 The example machine readable instructions and / or example operations 900 end.

[0158] Fig.10 is another flow diagram representative of a sequence of example machine readable instructions and / or example operations 1000 that may be executed and / or instantiated by a processor circuit to generate events associated with a process control system. Fig.10 The example machine readable instructions and / or example operations 1000 begin at block 1002, where the control circuit 400 synchronizes at least one of (i) a first clock of a first field device, (ii) a second clock of a second field device, or (iii) a third clock of an input / output (I / O) system with a fourth clock of the controller. For example, the time synchronization circuit 420 ( Figure 4) can synchronize at least one of the first clock of the fifth field device 306, the second clock of the sixth field device 308, the third clock of the I / O system 312, or the fourth clock of the controller 314.

[0159] At block 1004, the control circuit 400 synchronizes at least one of the first clock, the second clock, or the third clock with one (or more) of the other clocks. For example, the time synchronization circuit 420 may synchronize at least one of the first clock of the fifth field device 306, the second clock of the sixth field device 308, or the third clock of the I / O system 312.

[0160] At block 1006, the control circuit 400 obtains a first digital signal from the first field device, the first digital signal representing a first sensor data value tagged with a first timestamp, the first timestamp to be generated by the first field device. For example, the interface circuit 410 may obtain a first TCP / IP packet from the fifth field device 306, which may include first data corresponding to (i) a first sensor data value from the fifth field device 306 and (ii) a first timestamp generated by the fifth field device 306 when the first sensor data value was measured, determined, generated, etc. by the fifth field device 306.

[0161] At block 1008, the control circuit 400 obtains a second digital signal from the second field device, the second digital signal representing a second sensor data value tagged with a second timestamp, the second timestamp to be generated by the second field device. For example, the interface circuit 410 may obtain a second TCP / IP packet from the sixth field device 308, which may include second data corresponding to (i) a second sensor data value from the sixth field device 308 and (ii) a second timestamp generated by the sixth field device 308 when the second sensor data value was measured, determined, generated, etc. by the sixth field device 308.

[0162] At block 1010, the control circuit 400 obtains a third digital signal from the I / O system, the third digital signal representing a third sensor data value marked with a third timestamp, the third timestamp to be generated by the I / O system. For example, the interface circuit 410 may obtain a third TCP / IP packet from the I / O system 312, which may include third data corresponding to (i) a third sensor data value from the seventh field device 332 and (ii) a third timestamp generated by the I / O system 312 when the third sensor data value is obtained from the seventh field device 332.

[0163] At block 1012, the control circuit 400 records a data association of the first sensor data value, the second sensor data value, and the third sensor data value, the data association representing a sequence of events including an order of the first sensor data value, the second sensor data value, and the third sensor data value based on the first timestamp, the second timestamp, and the third timestamp. For example, the sequence of events generation circuit 450 ( Figure 4 ) may generate a sequence of events 800 based on a first timestamp, a first sensor data value, a second timestamp, a second sensor data value, a third timestamp, and a third sensor data value. In some examples, based on determining that the first timestamp is before or earlier than the second timestamp and the third timestamp, the sequence of events may include an order of a first sensor data value at the first timestamp, followed by a second sensor data value at the second timestamp, and / or a third sensor data value at the third timestamp. For example, the sequence of events generating circuitry 450 may store the sequence of events as sequence data 466 of events in the data store 460. In some examples, the sequence of events may be implemented by a data association of the first timestamp, the first sensor data value, the second timestamp, the second sensor data value, the third timestamp, and the third sensor data value as the sequence data 466 of events in the data store 460. In response to storing the data association of the first sensor data value, the second sensor data value, and the third sensor data value at block 1012, Fig.10 The example machine readable instructions and / or example operations 1000 end.

[0164] Fig.11 is a flow diagram representative of a sequence of example machine readable instructions and / or example operations 1100 that may be executed and / or instantiated by a processor circuit to generate events based on sensor measurements from subscribing field devices. Fig.11 The example machine readable instructions and / or example operations 1100 begin at block 1102, where the control circuit 400 selects a field device in a process control system for processing. For example, the subscriber group generation circuit 440 ( Figure 4 ) can select the fifth field device 306 for processing.

[0165] At block 1104, the control circuit 400 authenticates the field device to join the process control system. For example, the device authentication circuit 430 ( Figure 4 ) may authenticate and / or otherwise verify the fifth field device 306 as being authorized to join the third process control system 300 based on the security techniques described herein.

[0166] At block 1106, the control circuit 400 determines whether the field device is associated with other field devices. For example, the subscriber group generation circuit 440 may determine whether the field device is associated with other field devices. Figure 4 ) to determine that the fifth field device 306 is associated with at least one of the sixth field device 308 or the seventh field device 332.

[0167] If at block 1106 , the control circuit 400 determines that the field device is not associated with other field device(s), control proceeds to block 1110 , otherwise control proceeds to block 1108 .

[0168] At block 1108, the control circuit 400 generates an event subscription identifier (ID) to identify the field device as a subscriber of the other field device(s). For example, the subscriber group generation circuit 440 can generate an event subscription ID that associates the fifth field device 306 and the sixth field device 308. In some examples, the subscriber group generation circuit 440 can identify the fifth field device 306 as a subscriber (e.g., a subscriber field device) of an event generated by the sixth field device 308.

[0169] At block 1110 , the control circuit 400 determines whether to select another field device in the process control system for processing. For example, the subscriber group generation circuit 440 may determine to select the sixth field device 308 for processing.

[0170] If at block 1110 , the control circuit 400 determines that another field device in the process control system is selected for processing, control returns to block 1102 , otherwise control proceeds to block 1112 .

[0171] At block 1112, the control circuit 400 sends configuration data including an event subscription ID to the field device(s), the event subscription ID identifying the field device(s) as a subscriber(s) to the other field device(s). For example, the subscriber group generation circuit 440 may send the field device configuration data 462 to the fifth field device 306 and the sixth field device 308, which may include the event subscriber ID.

[0172] At block 1114, the control circuit 400 determines whether the field device broadcasts an event that includes an event subscription ID. For example, the subscriber group generation circuit 440 may determine that the sixth field device 308 generated an event that may include an event subscription ID. In some examples, the subscriber group generation circuit 440 may map the event subscription ID to a data association of the fifth field device 306 as a subscriber field device and the sixth field device 308 as a publisher field device.

[0173] If at block 1114 , the control circuit 400 determines that the field device is not broadcasting an event including the event subscription ID, control proceeds to block 1120 , otherwise control proceeds to block 1116 .

[0174] At block 1116, the control circuit 400 obtains sensor measurement data from the subscribing field device(s) associated with the field device based on the event subscription ID. For example, in response to a publisher field device (such as the sixth field device 308) publishing a first event, the interface circuit 410 ( Figure 4 ) may obtain a second event (eg, an event including sensor measurement data) from a subscriber field device (such as the fifth field device 306).

[0175] At block 1118, the control circuit 400 generates a sequence of events based on the sensor measurement data from the subscribing field device(s). For example, the sequence of events generating circuit 450 ( Figure 4 ) can generate a sequence of events 800 based on a first event from a publisher field device and a second event from a subscriber field device. In some examples, the sequence of events generation circuit 450 can generate the sequence of events as an order of the first event followed by the second event based on determining that a first timestamp of the first event is before a second timestamp of the second event.

[0176] At block 1120, the control circuit 400 determines whether to continue monitoring the process control system. For example, the interface circuit 410 may determine whether additional events have been Figure 3 If the control circuit 400 determines to continue monitoring the process control system at box 1120, the control returns to box 1114, otherwise Fig.11 The example machine readable instructions and / or example operations 1100 end.

[0177] Fig.12 is a flow diagram representative of example machine readable instructions and / or example operations 1200 that may be executed and / or instantiated by a processor circuit to cause generation of a sequence of events associated with a process control system. Fig.12 The example machine readable instructions and / or example operations 1200 begin at block 1202, where the field device circuit 500 records a timestamp at the field device during the measurement phase after determining that a measurement phase associated with a field device in a process control system is triggered. For example, the timestamp recording circuit 530 ( Figure 5) can determine that a measurement phase associated with the fifth field device 306 has been triggered and / or otherwise invoked. In some examples, the timestamp recording circuit 530 can generate a timestamp using a clock generator (eg, a clock generation circuit) to identify the start of the measurement phase.

[0178] At block 1204, the field device circuit 500 records a digital value based on the sensor measurement associated with the timestamp at the field device. For example, the measurement recording circuit 540 ( Figure 5 ) can record sensor measurements associated with timestamps at the field device. For example, measurement recording circuit 540 ( Figure 5 ) may record a sensor data value from a sensor, such as a position sensor of the fifth fluid flow control assembly 302, at a time corresponding to the first timestamp.

[0179] At block 1206, the field device circuit 500 transmits a digital signal representing at least one of a timestamp or a sensor measurement from the field device to the electronic device using a network communication protocol. For example, the interface circuit 510 ( Figure 5 ) can send one or more TCP / IP packets implemented by one or more digital signals from the fifth field device 306 to the controller 314 via the network switch 310. In some examples, the one or more TCP / IP packets can implement an event, which can include at least one of a timestamp or a sensor data value.

[0180] At block 1208, the field device circuit 500 causes generation of a sequence of events associated with the field device based on the digital signal. For example, the interface circuit 510 may cause the controller 314 to generate the sequence of events 800 by sending one or more digital signals to the controller 314. In some examples, the sequence of events may include at least one of a timestamp or a sensor data value. In response to causing generation of a sequence of events associated with the field device based on the digital signal at block 1208, Fig.12 The example machine readable instructions and / or example operations 1200 end.

[0181] Fig.13 is another flow diagram representative of example machine readable instructions and / or example operations 1300 that may be executed and / or instantiated by a processor circuit to cause generation of a sequence of events associated with a process control system. Fig.13 The example machine readable instructions and / or example operations 1300 begin at block 1302, where the control circuit 400 selects a field device in a process control system for processing. For example, the interface circuit 410 ( Figure 4 ) and / or event sequence generation circuit 450 ( Figure 4) may select a third field device 206 of the second process control system 200 to process and / or otherwise obtain data therefrom.

[0182] At block 1304, the field device circuit 500 determines whether a measurement phase associated with the field device has been triggered. For example, the measurement result recording circuit 540 ( Figure 5 ) may determine that a measurement phase (eg, a phase in which a field device measures process parameter(s) with sensor(s)) is to be triggered and / or otherwise invoked.

[0183] If at block 1304 the field device circuit 500 determines that the measurement phase associated with the field device is not triggered, control proceeds to block 1318 , otherwise control proceeds to block 1306 .

[0184] At block 1306, the field device circuit 500 records a first timestamp at the field device at the beginning of the measurement phase. For example, the timestamp recording circuit 530 ( Figure 5 ) A first timestamp may be recorded at the beginning of the measurement phase.

[0185] At block 1308, the field device circuit 500 records the first sensor measurement associated with the first timestamp. For example, the measurement recording circuit 540 ( Figure 5 ) may record a first sensor measurement from a position sensor (or any other sensor) of the third fluid flow control assembly 202 to be associated with and / or otherwise correspond to the first timestamp.

[0186] At block 1310, the field device circuit 500 sends first data including a first timestamp and a first sensor measurement result from the field device to the electronic device using a network communication protocol. For example, the interface circuit 510 ( Figure 5 ) can generate one or more first network packets (such as TCP / IP packets) to include the first timestamp and the first sensor measurement result. In some examples, the interface circuit 510 can send the one or more first network packets to the controller 214 via the network switch 210.

[0187] At block 1312, the field device circuit 500 records a second timestamp at the field device at the end of the measurement phase. For example, the timestamp recording circuit 530 may record the second timestamp at the end of the measurement phase.

[0188] At block 1314, the field device circuit 500 records the second sensor measurement associated with the second timestamp. For example, the measurement recording circuit 540 may record the second sensor measurement from the position sensor (or any other sensor) of the third fluid flow control assembly 202 to be associated with and / or otherwise correspond to the second timestamp.

[0189] At block 1316, the field device circuit 500 sends second data including the second timestamp and the second sensor measurement from the field device to the electronic device using the network communication protocol. For example, the interface circuit 510 can generate one or more second network packets (such as TCP / IP packets) to include the second timestamp and the second sensor measurement. In some examples, the interface circuit 510 can send the one or more second network packets to the controller 214 via the network switch 210.

[0190] At block 1318, the control circuitry 400 determines whether to select another field device for processing. For example, the interface circuitry 410 and / or the sequence of events generation circuitry 450 may select a fourth field device 208 of the second process control system 200 to process and / or otherwise obtain data from.

[0191] If at block 1318 , the control circuit 400 determines that another field device is selected for processing, control returns to block 1302 , otherwise control advances to block 1320 .

[0192] At block 1320, the field device circuit 500 causes generation of a sequence of events for the field device(s) based on at least one of the first data or the second data. For example, the interface circuit 510 may cause and / or otherwise invoke the sequence of events generation circuit 450 to generate a sequence of events 800 that includes a sequenced arrangement of the first sensor measurement result and the second sensor measurement result based on an order of the first timestamp and the second timestamp.

[0193] At block 1322, the field device circuit 500 determines whether to continue monitoring the process control system. For example, the interface circuit 410 and / or the sequence of events generation circuit 450 may determine to continue monitoring one (or more) of the field devices 206 and 208 of the second process control system 200 for additional events, sensor measurements, etc. If at block 1322, the field device circuit 500 determines to continue monitoring the process control system, control returns to block 1302, otherwise Fig.13 The example machine readable instructions and / or example operations 1300 end.

[0194] Fig.14is a flow diagram representative of example machine readable instructions and / or example operations 1400 that may be executed and / or instantiated by a processor circuit to obtain sensor measurement(s) that satisfy threshold(s). Fig.14 The example machine readable instructions and / or example operations 1400 begin at block 1402, where the field device circuit 500 determines whether a measurement phase associated with the field device is triggered. For example, the measurement result recording circuit 540 ( Figure 5 ) can determine that a new measurement phase for the fourth field device 208 begins.

[0195] If at block 1402 the field device circuit 500 determines that a measurement phase associated with the field device is not triggered, control proceeds to block 1420 , otherwise control proceeds to block 1404 .

[0196] At block 1404, the field device circuit 500 determines whether the first sensor measurement associated with the first timestamp satisfies a threshold. For example, the measurement recording circuit 540 may determine whether the first sensor measurement associated with the first timestamp satisfies a threshold. Figure 7 The first analog signal value 702 is lower than Figure 7 In some examples, first analog signal value 702 can correspond to a first sensor measurement from a sensor of fourth fluid flow control assembly 204.

[0197] If at block 1404, the field device circuit 500 determines that the first sensor measurement associated with the first timestamp satisfies the threshold, then at block 1406, the field device circuit 500 obtains the first sensor measurement that satisfies the threshold. For example, the measurement recording circuit 540 may record the first sensor measurement, which may be an analog signal value such as 8 mA or a corresponding process parameter value such as a pressure of 100 PSI, in the data storage 550 as sensor measurement data 554. In response to obtaining the first sensor measurement that satisfies the threshold at block 1406, control proceeds to block 1410.

[0198] If at block 1404 the field device circuit 500 determines that the first sensor measurement associated with the first timestamp does not satisfy the threshold, control proceeds to block 1408 .

[0199] At block 1408, the field device circuitry 500 obtains a first sensor measurement that does not meet the threshold. For example, the measurement recording circuitry 540 may record the value of the first analog signal 702 and / or a corresponding process parameter (e.g., pressure, temperature, etc. that the sensor is sensing, measuring, monitoring, etc.) as sensor measurement data 554 in the data store 550. In response to obtaining the first sensor measurement that does not meet the threshold, control proceeds to block 1410.

[0200] At block 1410, the field device circuit 500 sends first data including a first sensor measurement result and a first timestamp to the electronic device using a network communication protocol. For example, the interface circuit 510 ( Figure 5 ) may send the first sensor measurement and the first timestamp to the controller 214 via the network switch 210 using a network communication protocol such as TCP / IP or other Ethernet-based communication protocols.

[0201] At block 1412, the field device circuit 500 determines whether the second sensor measurement associated with the second timestamp satisfies the threshold. For example, the measurement recording circuit 540 may determine whether the second sensor measurement associated with the second timestamp satisfies the threshold. Figure 7 The second analog signal value 706 is higher than Figure 7 In some examples, the second analog signal value 706 can correspond to a second sensor measurement from a sensor of the fourth fluid flow control assembly 204.

[0202] If at block 1412, the field device circuit 500 determines that the second sensor measurement associated with the second timestamp satisfies the threshold, then at block 1414, the field device circuit 500 obtains the second sensor measurement that satisfies the threshold. For example, the measurement recording circuit 540 may record the second sensor measurement, which may be an analog signal value such as 18 mA or a value of a corresponding process parameter such as a pressure of 300 PSI, in the data storage 550 as sensor measurement data 554. In response to obtaining the second sensor measurement that satisfies the threshold at block 1414, control proceeds to block 1418.

[0203] If at block 1412 , the field device circuit 500 determines that the second sensor measurement associated with the second timestamp does not satisfy the threshold, control advances to block 1416 .

[0204] At block 1416, the field device circuit 500 obtains a second sensor measurement that does not meet the threshold. For example, the measurement recording circuit 540 may record the second analog signal value 706 and / or the value of the corresponding process parameter (e.g., pressure, temperature, etc. that the sensor is sensing, measuring, monitoring, etc.) as sensor measurement data 554 in the data storage 550. In response to obtaining the second sensor measurement that does not meet the threshold, control proceeds to block 1418.

[0205] At block 1418, the field device circuit 500 sends the second data including the second sensor measurement result and the second timestamp to the electronic device using the network communication protocol. For example, the interface circuit 510 can send the second sensor measurement result and the second timestamp to the controller 214 via the network switch 210 using a network communication protocol (such as TCP / IP or other Ethernet-based communication protocols).

[0206] At block 1420, the field device circuitry 500 determines whether to continue monitoring the field device. For example, the measurement recording circuitry 540 may determine whether to continue obtaining sensor data measurements from the fourth field device 208 to support diagnostic capabilities of the second process control system 200, such as collecting event data to create a sequence of events (e.g., process control events).

[0207] If at block 1420, the field device circuit 500 determines to continue monitoring the field device, control returns to block 1402, otherwise Fig.14 The example machine readable instructions and / or example operations 1400 end.

[0208] Fig.15 is a flow diagram representative of example machine readable instructions and / or example operations 1500 that may be executed and / or instantiated by a processor circuit to cause generation of a sequence of events associated with a process control system based on minimum and / or maximum value(s) of sensor measurement(s). Fig.15 The example machine readable instructions and / or example operations 1500 begin at block 1502, where the control circuit 400 selects a field device in the process control system for processing. For example, the interface circuit 410 and / or the sequence of events generation circuit 450 may select the fourth field device 208 to process and / or otherwise obtain events, sensor measurements, etc. from it.

[0209] At block 1504, the field device circuit 500 determines whether to invoke a measurement phase associated with the field device. For example, the measurement result recording circuit 540 ( Figure 5 ) can determine whether to trigger a time period for obtaining sensor measurement results from the sensor of the fourth fluid flow control component 204.

[0210] If at block 1504 the field device circuit 500 determines that a measurement phase associated with the field device has not been invoked, control proceeds to block 1514 , otherwise control proceeds to block 1506 .

[0211] At block 1506, the field device circuit 500 obtains sensor measurements during the measurement phase between the first timestamp and the second timestamp. For example, the measurement recording circuit 540 may obtain sensor measurements from a first time (such as T1 in the second diagram 700) to a ninth time (such as T9 in the second diagram 700).

[0212] At block 1508, the field device circuit 500 records the minimum value of the sensor measurements.For example, the measurement recording circuit 540 may record the first analog signal value 702 as the minimum value of the sensor measurements recorded from T1 to T9.

[0213] At block 1510, the field device circuit 500 records the maximum value of the sensor measurements. For example, the measurement recording circuit 540 may record the second analog signal value 706 as the maximum value of the sensor measurements recorded from T1 to T9.

[0214] At block 1512, the field device circuit 500 sends the first timestamp, the second timestamp, the minimum value, and the maximum value to the electronic device using the network communication protocol. For example, the interface circuit 510 ( Figure 5 ) may send a first timestamp value corresponding to T1, a second timestamp value corresponding to T9, a first analog signal value 702, and a second analog signal value 706 to a controller 214 via a network switch 210 using a network communication protocol such as Ethernet or an Ethernet-based protocol.

[0215] At block 1514, the control circuit 400 determines whether to select another field device in the process control system for processing. For example, the interface circuit 410 and / or the sequence of events generation circuit 450 may determine whether to select a third field device 206 of the second process control system 200 for processing.

[0216] If at block 1514 , the control circuit 400 determines that another field device in the process control system is selected for processing, control returns to block 1502 , otherwise control advances to block 1516 .

[0217] At block 1516, the field device circuitry 500 causes a sequence of events to be generated based on the timestamps, minimum values, and maximum values ​​for the field device(s). For example, the interface circuitry 510 may cause the sequence of events generation circuitry 450 and / or, more generally, the control circuitry 400 to generate a sequence of events based on a plurality of events from a plurality of field devices of the second process control system 200.

[0218] At block 1518 , the control circuit 400 determines whether to continue monitoring the process control system. For example, the interface circuit 410 and / or the sequence of events generation circuit 450 may determine to continue monitoring events associated with one (or more) of the field devices 206 and 208 of the second process control system 200 .

[0219] If at block 1518, the control circuit 400 determines to continue monitoring the process control system, control returns to block 1502, otherwise Fig.15 The example machine readable instructions and / or example operations 1500 end.

[0220] Fig.16 is a flow diagram representative of example machine readable instructions and / or example operations 1600 that may be executed and / or instantiated by a processor circuit to implement event storm prevention. Fig.16 The example machine readable instructions and / or example operations 1600 begin at block 1602, where the field device circuit 500 determines whether the field device is to generate a first event. For example, after determining that a pressure measurement from the pressure sensor of the fifth fluid flow control assembly 302 spikes above a pressure threshold, the measurement recording circuit 540 ( Figure 5 ) may determine that the fifth field device 306 will generate a first event.

[0221] If at block 1602 the field device circuit 500 determines that the field device does not generate the first event, control proceeds to block 1612 , otherwise control proceeds to block 1604 .

[0222] At block 1604, the field device circuit 500 determines whether the field device has received a second event from the signaling field device. Figure 5 ) can determine that a second event is received from the sixth field device 308. In some examples, the interface circuit 510 can determine that the second event indicates that a pressure measurement from a pressure sensor of the sixth fluid flow control assembly 304 also spiked above a pressure threshold. For example, the interface circuit 510 can determine that the first event and the second event are related and that an event storm may occur if not prevented.

[0223] If at block 1604 , the field device circuit 500 determines that the field device has not received the second event from the signaling field device, control proceeds to block 1606 .

[0224] At block 1606, the field device circuit 500 broadcasts the first event from the field device to the (multiple) subscribing field devices. For example, after determining that an event storm does not occur, the interface circuit 510 may broadcast, propagate, and / or otherwise send the first event to the (multiple) field devices subscribing to the fifth field device 306. In some examples, the interface circuit 510 may determine that the sixth field device 308 is a subscriber of the fifth field device 306 based on the field device configuration data 552. For example, the interface circuit 510 may send the first event to an IP address associated with the sixth field device 308. In response to broadcasting the first event from the field device to the (multiple) subscribing field devices at block 1606, control proceeds to block 1610.

[0225] If at block 1604 , the field device circuit 500 determines that the field device received a second event from the signaling field device, control proceeds to block 1608 .

[0226] At block 1608, the field device circuitry 500 transmits the sensor measurement data from the field device to the electronic device. For example, the interface circuitry 510 may transmit one or more sensor measurements from one or more sensors of the fifth fluid flow control assembly 302 to the controller 314 (e.g., via the network switch 310). Advantageously, the interface circuitry 510 may prevent event storms from occurring via one or more sensor measurements from the controller 314, rather than broadcasting its own events to subscriber field devices and thereby flooding the third process control system 300 with redundant or extraneous events.

[0227] After the sensor measurement data is sent from the field device to the electronic device at block 1608, control proceeds to block 1610. At block 1610, the field device circuitry 500 causes a sequence of events to be generated based on the sensor measurement data from the subscribing field device(s). For example, the interface circuitry 510 may cause the sequence of events generation circuitry 450 to generate a sequence of events based on the sensor measurement data from the subscribing field device(s). Figure 3 One or more sensor measurements, events, etc. of one (or more) of the field device 306 , the field device 308 , the field device 332 , and / or the I / O system 312 generate a sequence 800 of events.

[0228] At block 1612, the field device circuit 500 determines whether to continue monitoring the process control system. For example, the measurement recording circuit 540 may determine whether the fifth field device 306 will generate another event, trigger a measurement phase, and the like.

[0229] If at block 1612, the field device circuit 500 determines to continue monitoring the process control system, control returns to block 1602, otherwise Fig.16The example machine readable instructions and / or example operations 1600 end.

[0230] Fig.17 is constructed to execute and / or instantiate Fig. 9 , Fig.10 , Fig.11 , Fig.13 and / or Fig.15 Example machine readable instructions and / or example operations to implement Figure 4 The processor platform 1700 may be, for example, a server, a personal computer, a workstation, a self-learning machine (e.g., a neural network), a mobile device (e.g., a cellular phone, a smart phone, an iPad, etc.). TM tablet computer), head-mounted device (e.g., augmented reality (AR) head-mounted device, virtual reality (VR) head-mounted device, etc.) or other wearable device, programmable logic controller (PLC), or any other type of computing device.

[0231] The processor platform 1700 of the illustrated example includes a processor circuit 1712. The processor circuit 1712 of the illustrated example is hardware. For example, the processor circuit 1712 may be implemented by one or more integrated circuits, logic circuits, FPGAs, microprocessors, CPUs, GPUs, DSPs, and / or microcontrollers from any desired family or manufacturer. The processor circuit 1712 may be implemented by one or more semiconductor-based (e.g., silicon-based) devices. In this example, the processor circuit 1712 implements Figure 4 A time synchronization circuit 420 (identified by TIME SYNCH CIRCUITRY), a device authentication circuit 430 (identified by DEVICE AUTH CIRCUITRY), a subscriber group generation circuit 440 (identified by SUBS GROUP GEN CIRCUITRY) and an event sequence generation circuit 450 (identified by EVENT SEQ GEN CIRCUITRY).

[0232] The processor circuit 1712 of the illustrated example includes a local memory 1713 (e.g., cache, registers, etc.). The processor circuit 1712 of the illustrated example communicates with a main memory including a volatile memory 1714 and a non-volatile memory 1716 via a bus 1718. In this example, the bus 1718 may implement Figure 4 The volatile memory 1714 may be a synchronous SDRAM, a DRAM, The non-volatile memory 1716 may be implemented by a flash memory and / or any other desired type of memory device. Access to the main memory 1714, 1716 of the illustrated example is controlled by a memory controller 1717.

[0233] The processor platform 1700 of the illustrated example also includes an interface circuit 1720. The interface circuit 1720 can be implemented by hardware according to any type of interface standard (such as an Ethernet interface, a universal serial bus (USB) interface, interface, near field communication (NFC) interface, PCI interface and / or PCIe interface). In this example, the interface circuit 1720 implements Figure 4 Interface circuit 410.

[0234] In the illustrated example, one or more input devices 1722 are connected to the interface circuit 1720. The input device(s) 1722 allow a user to enter data and / or commands into the processor circuit 1712. The input device(s) 1722 may be implemented by, for example, an audio sensor, a microphone, a camera (still or video), a keyboard, buttons, a mouse, a touch screen, a track pad, a track ball, an isotropic device, and / or a voice recognition system.

[0235] One or more output devices 1724 are also connected to the interface circuit 1720 of the illustrated example. The output device(s) 1724 may be, for example, implemented by a display device (e.g., a light emitting diode (LED), an organic light emitting diode (OLED), a liquid crystal display (LCD), a cathode ray tube (CRT) display, an in-place switch (IPS) display, a touch screen, etc.), a tactile output device, a printer, and / or a speaker. Thus, the interface circuit 1720 of the illustrated example typically includes a graphics driver card, a graphics driver chip, and / or a graphics processor circuit such as a GPU.

[0236] The interface circuitry 1720 of the illustrated example also includes communication devices, such as transmitters, receivers, transceivers, modems, residential gateways, wireless access points, and / or network interfaces to facilitate data exchange with external machines (e.g., any type of computing device) over the network 1726. Communications may be through, for example, an Ethernet connection, a digital subscriber line (DSL) connection, a telephone line connection, a coaxial cable system, a satellite system, a field line wireless system, a cellular telephone system, an optical connection, etc.

[0237] The processor platform 1700 of the illustrated example also includes one or more mass storage devices 1728 to store software and / or data. Examples of such mass storage devices 1728 include magnetic storage devices, optical storage devices, floppy disk drives, HDDs, CDs, Blu-ray disk drives, redundant arrays of independent disks (RAID) systems, solid-state storage devices such as flash memory devices and / or SSDs, and DVD drives. In this example, the one or more mass storage devices 1728 implement Figure 4 The data store 460 includes field device configuration data 462 (identified by FIELD DEVICE CONFIG DATA), sensor measurement data 464 (identified by SENSOR DATA), and event sequence data 466 (identified by EVENT SEQ DATA).

[0238] Can be Fig. 9 , Fig.10 , Fig.11 , Fig.13 and / or Fig.15 The machine-readable instructions 1732 implemented by the machine-readable instructions may be stored in the mass storage device 1728, in the volatile memory 1714, in the non-volatile memory 1716, and / or on a removable, non-transitory computer-readable storage medium such as a CD or DVD.

[0239] Fig.18 is constructed to execute and / or instantiate Figures 12 to 16 Example machine readable instructions and / or example operations to implement Figure 5 The processor platform 1800 can be, for example, a server, a personal computer, a workstation, a self-learning machine (e.g., a neural network), a mobile device (e.g., a cellular phone, a smart phone, an iPad, etc.). TM tablet computer), personal digital assistant (PDA), head-mounted device (e.g., augmented reality (AR) head-mounted device, virtual reality (VR) head-mounted device, etc.) or other wearable device, PLC, or any other type of computing device.

[0240] The processor platform 1800 of the illustrated example includes a processor circuit 1812. The processor circuit 1812 of the illustrated example is hardware. For example, the processor circuit 1812 can be implemented by one or more integrated circuits, logic circuits, FPGAs, microprocessors, CPUs, GPUs, DSPs, and / or microcontrollers from any desired family or manufacturer. The processor circuit 1812 can be implemented by one or more semiconductor-based (e.g., silicon-based) devices. In this example, the processor circuit 1812 implements Figure 5A time synchronization circuit 520 (identified by TIME SYNCH CIRCUITRY), a timestamp recording circuit 530 (identified by TIMESTAMP REC CIRCUITRY) and a measurement result recording circuit 540 (identified by MEASUREMENT RECCIRCUITRY).

[0241] The processor circuit 1812 of the illustrated example includes a local memory 1813 (e.g., cache, registers, etc.). The processor circuit 1812 of the illustrated example communicates with a main memory including a volatile memory 1814 and a non-volatile memory 1816 via a bus 1818. In this example, the bus 1818 may implement Figure 5 The volatile memory 1814 may be composed of SDRAM, DRAM, The non-volatile memory 1816 may be implemented by a flash memory and / or any other desired type of memory device. Access to the main memory 1814, 1816 of the illustrated example is controlled by a memory controller 1817.

[0242] The processor platform 1800 of the illustrated example also includes an interface circuit 1820. The interface circuit 1820 can be implemented by hardware according to any type of interface standard (such as an Ethernet interface, a USB interface, interface, NFC interface, PCI interface and / or PCIe interface). In this example, the interface circuit 1820 implements Figure 5 Interface circuit 510.

[0243] In the illustrated example, one or more input devices 1822 are connected to the interface circuit 1820. The input device(s) 1822 allow a user to enter data and / or commands into the processor circuit 1812. The input device(s) 1822 may be implemented by, for example, an audio sensor, a microphone, a camera (still or video), a keyboard, buttons, a mouse, a touch screen, a track pad, a track ball, an isotropic device, and / or a voice recognition system.

[0244] One or more output devices 1824 are also connected to the interface circuit 1820 of the illustrated example. (Multiple) output devices 1824 can be, for example, implemented by a display device (e.g., LED, OLED, LCD, CRT display, IPS display, touch screen, etc.), a tactile output device, a printer, and / or a speaker. Therefore, the interface circuit 1820 of the illustrated example typically includes a graphics driver card, a graphics driver chip, and / or a graphics processor circuit such as a GPU.

[0245] The interface circuitry 1820 of the illustrated example also includes communication devices, such as transmitters, receivers, transceivers, modems, residential gateways, wireless access points, and / or network interfaces to facilitate data exchange with external machines (e.g., any type of computing device) over the network 1826. Communications may be through, for example, an Ethernet connection, a DSL connection, a telephone line connection, a coaxial cable system, a satellite system, a field line wireless system, a cellular telephone system, an optical connection, etc.

[0246] The processor platform 1800 of the illustrated example also includes one or more mass storage devices 1828 to store software and / or data. Examples of such mass storage devices 1828 include magnetic storage devices, optical storage devices, floppy disk drives, HDDs, CDs, Blu-ray disk drives, RAID systems, solid-state storage devices such as flash memory devices and / or SSDs, and DVD drives.

[0247] Can be Figures 12 to 16 The machine-readable instructions 1832 implemented by the machine-readable instructions may be stored in the mass storage device 1828, in the volatile memory 1814, in the non-volatile memory 1816, and / or on a removable non-transitory computer-readable storage medium such as a CD or DVD.

[0248] Fig.19 yes Fig.17 The processor circuit 1712 and / or Fig.18 1812. In this example, Fig.17 The processor circuit 1712 and / or Fig.18 The processor circuit 1812 is implemented by the microprocessor 1900. For example, the microprocessor 1900 may be a general-purpose microprocessor (eg, a general-purpose microprocessor circuit). The microprocessor 1900 executes Figures 9 to 16 Some or all of the machine readable instructions of the flowchart of the machine readable instructions to effectively Figure 4 The control circuit 400 and / or Figure 5 The field device circuit 500 is instantiated as a logic circuit to perform operations corresponding to those machine-readable instructions. In some such examples, Figure 4 The control circuit 400 and / or Figure 5The field device circuit 500 is instantiated by a combination of hardware circuits and instructions of the microprocessor 1900. For example, the microprocessor 1900 can be implemented by a multi-core hardware circuit such as a CPU, DSP, GPU, XPU, etc. Although it can include any number of example cores 1902 (for example, 1 core), the microprocessor 1900 of this example is a multi-core semiconductor device including N cores. The cores 1902 of the microprocessor 1900 can operate independently or can cooperate to execute machine-readable instructions. For example, the machine code corresponding to a firmware program, an embedded software program, or a software program can be executed by one of the cores in the core 1902, or can be executed by multiple cores in the core 1902 at the same or different times. In some examples, the machine code corresponding to the firmware program, the embedded software program, or the software program is divided into threads and executed in parallel by two or more cores in the core 1902. The software program can be executed in parallel by Figures 9 to 16 The flowcharts may correspond to some or all of the machine-readable instructions and / or operations represented by the flowcharts.

[0249] The core 1902 can communicate via a first example bus 1904. In some examples, the first bus 1904 can be implemented by a communication bus to implement communications associated with one (or more) cores in the core 1902. For example, the first bus 1904 can be implemented by at least one bus of an inter-integrated circuit (I2C) bus, a serial peripheral interface (SPI) bus, a PCI bus, or a PCIe bus. Additionally or alternatively, the first bus 1904 can be implemented by any other type of computing or electrical bus. The core 1902 can obtain data, instructions, and / or signals from one or more external devices via an example interface circuit 1906. The core 1902 can output data, instructions, and / or signals to one or more external devices via the interface circuit 1906. Although the core 1902 of this example includes an example local memory 1920 (e.g., a level 1 (L1) cache that can be divided into a L1 data cache and an L1 instruction cache), the microprocessor 1900 also includes an example shared memory 1910 that can be shared by the cores (e.g., a level 2 (L2 cache)) for high-speed access to data and / or instructions. Data and / or instructions can be transmitted (e.g., shared) by writing to and / or reading from the shared memory 1910. The local memory 1920 of each core in the core 1902 and the shared memory 1910 can be a plurality of levels of cache memory and main memory (e.g., Fig.17 Main memory 1714, main memory 1716, Fig.18Cache memory is part of a storage device hierarchy (e.g., main memory 1814, main memory 1816, etc.). Typically, higher level memories in the hierarchy exhibit lower access times and have smaller storage capacities than lower level memories. Changes in each level of the cache hierarchy are managed (e.g., coordinated) by a cache coherence policy.

[0250] Each core 1902 may be referred to as a CPU, DSP, GPU, etc., or any other type of hardware circuit. Each core 1902 includes a control unit circuit 1914, an arithmetic and logic (AL) circuit (sometimes referred to as an ALU) 1916, a plurality of registers 1918, a local memory 1920, and a second example bus 1922. Other structures may exist. For example, each core 1902 may include a vector unit circuit, a single instruction multiple data (SIMD) unit circuit, a load / store unit (LSU) circuit, a branch / jump unit circuit, a floating point unit (FPU) circuit, etc. The control unit circuit 1914 includes a semiconductor-based circuit that is configured to control (e.g., coordinate) data movement within the corresponding core 1902. The AL circuit 1916 includes a semiconductor-based circuit that is configured to perform one or more mathematical and / or logical operations on data within the corresponding core 1902. The AL circuit 1916 of some examples performs integer-based operations. In other examples, the AL circuit 1916 also performs floating-point operations. In yet other examples, AL circuit 1916 may include a first AL circuit that performs integer-based operations and a second AL circuit that performs floating-point operations. In some examples, AL circuit 1916 may be referred to as an arithmetic logic unit (ALU). Register 1918 is a semiconductor-based structure to store data and / or instructions, such as the results of one or more operations performed by AL circuit 1916 of corresponding core 1902. For example, register 1918 may include vector register(s), SIMD register(s), general register(s), flag register(s), segment register(s), machine-specific register(s), instruction pointer register(s), control register(s), debug register(s), memory management register(s), machine check register(s), etc. Register 1918 may be arranged such as Fig.19 Alternatively, registers 1918 may be organized into any other arrangement, format, or structure, including being distributed throughout core 1902 to reduce access time. Second bus 1922 may be implemented by at least one of an I2C bus, an SPI bus, a PCI bus, or a PCIe bus.

[0251] Each core 1902 and / or more generally, the microprocessor 1900 may include additional and / or alternative structures compared to those structures shown and described above. For example, there may be one or more clock circuits, one or more power supplies, one or more power gates, one or more cache master agents (CHA), one or more convergence / common grid stops (CMS), one or more shifters (e.g., (multiple) barrel shifters) and / or other circuits. The microprocessor 1900 is a semiconductor device that is manufactured to include a plurality of interconnected transistors to implement the above structure in one or more integrated circuits (ICs) contained in one or more packages. The processor circuit may include one or more accelerators and / or collaborate with one or more accelerators. In some examples, the accelerator is implemented by a logic circuit to perform certain tasks faster and / or more efficiently than a general-purpose processor. Examples of accelerators include ASICs and FPGAs, such as those discussed herein. A GPU or other programmable device may also be an accelerator. The accelerator may be on a processor circuit board, in the same chip package as the processor circuit, and / or in one or more packages separated from the processor circuit.

[0252] Fig. 20 yes Fig.17 The processor circuit 1712 and / or Fig.18 1812 of the processor circuit 1812. In this example, Fig.17 The processor circuit 1712 and / or Fig.18 The processor circuit 1812 is implemented by the FPGA circuit 2000. For example, the FPGA circuit 2000 can be implemented by an FPGA. For example, the FPGA circuit 2000 can be used to perform operations that otherwise can be performed by Fig.19 However, once configured, the FPGA circuit 2000 instantiates the machine-readable instructions in hardware and can therefore typically perform operations faster than operations performed by a general-purpose microprocessor executing corresponding software.

[0253] More specifically, Fig.19 The microprocessor 1900 (which can be programmed to execute Figures 9 to 16 Compared to a general purpose device that may contain some or all of the machine readable instructions represented by a flowchart, but whose interconnections and logic circuits are fixed once manufactured, Fig. 20 The example FPGA circuit 2000 includes interconnects and logic circuits that can be configured and / or interconnected in different ways after manufacturing to instantiate, for example, by Figures 9 to 16In particular, FPGA circuit 2000 can be considered as an array of logic gates, interconnects, and switches. The switches can be programmed to change how the logic gates are interconnected by the interconnects, effectively forming one or more dedicated logic circuits (unless and until FPGA circuit 2000 is reprogrammed). The configured logic circuits enable the logic gates to cooperate in different ways to perform different operations on data received by the input circuits. These operations can be combined with the Figures 9 to 16 Thus, the FPGA circuit 2000 can be constructed to effectively Figures 9 to 16 Some or all of the machine-readable instructions of the flowchart of FIG. 1 are instantiated into dedicated logic circuits to perform operations corresponding to those software instructions in a dedicated manner similar to an ASIC. Thus, the FPGA circuit 2000 can perform operations corresponding to those software instructions. Figures 9 to 16 Some or all of the machine-readable instructions correspond to operations that are faster than a general purpose microprocessor can perform the same operations.

[0254] exist Fig. 20 In the example of FPGA circuit 2000, FPGA circuit 2000 is configured to be programmed (and / or reprogrammed one or more times) by an end user via a hardware description language (HDL) such as Verilog. Fig. 20 FPGA circuit 2000 includes example input / output (I / O) circuit 2002 to obtain data from and / or output data to example configuration circuit 2004 and / or external hardware 2006. For example, configuration circuit 2004 can be implemented by an interface circuit that can obtain machine-readable instructions to configure FPGA circuit 2000 or (multiple) portions thereof. In some such examples, configuration circuit 2004 can obtain machine-readable instructions from a user, a machine (e.g., a hardware circuit (e.g., programmed or dedicated circuit) that can implement an artificial intelligence / machine learning (AI / ML) model to generate instructions), etc. In some examples, external hardware 2006 can be implemented by external hardware circuits. For example, external hardware 2006 can be implemented by Fig.19 The FPGA circuit 2000 also includes an example logic gate circuit 2008, a plurality of example configurable interconnects 2010, and an array of example storage circuits 2012. The logic gate circuit 2008 and the configurable interconnect 2010 can be configured to be able to communicate with Figures 9 to 16 At least some of the machine-readable instructions of the machine-readable instructions and / or other desired operations correspond to one or more operation instantiations. Fig. 20The logic gate circuit 2008 shown is manufactured into groups or blocks. Each block includes a semiconductor-based electrical structure that can be configured into a logic circuit. In some examples, the electrical structure includes a logic gate (e.g., an AND gate, an OR gate, a NOR gate, etc.) that provides a basic building block to the logic circuit. An electrically controllable switch (e.g., a transistor) is present in each logic gate circuit of the logic gate circuit 2008 so that the configuration of the electrical structure and / or the logic gate can form a circuit that performs the desired operation. The logic gate circuit 2008 may include other electrical structures, such as a lookup table (LUT), a register (e.g., a flip-flop or a latch), a multiplexer, etc.

[0255] The illustrated example configurable interconnect 2010 is a conductive path, trace, via, etc. that may include an electrically controllable switch (e.g., a transistor), the state of which may be changed by programming (e.g., using an HDL instruction language) to activate or deactivate one or more connections between one or more logic gate circuits in one or more logic gate circuits 2008 to program the desired logic circuit.

[0256] The storage circuit 2012 of the illustrated example is configured to store (a plurality of) results of one or more operations performed by the corresponding logic gates. The storage circuit 2012 may be implemented by a register, etc. In the illustrated example, the storage circuit 2012 is distributed in the logic gate circuit 2008 to facilitate access and increase execution speed.

[0257] Fig. 20 The example FPGA circuit 2000 also includes an example dedicated operation circuit 2014. In this example, the dedicated operation circuit 2014 includes a dedicated circuit 2016, which can be called to implement commonly used functions to avoid the need to program these functions on site. Examples of such dedicated circuits 2016 include memory (e.g., DRAM) controller circuits, PCIe controller circuits, clock circuits, transceiver circuits, memories, and multiplier-accumulator circuits. There may be other types of dedicated circuits. In some examples, the FPGA circuit 2000 may also include an example general-purpose programmable circuit 2018, such as an example CPU 2020 and / or an example DSP 2022. Additionally or alternatively, there may be other general-purpose programmable circuits 2018, such as GPUs, XPUs, etc., which may be programmed to perform other operations.

[0258] although Fig.19 and Fig. 20 Picture shows Fig.17 The processor circuit 1712 and / or Fig.18 These are two example implementations of the processor circuit 1812, but many other approaches are contemplated. For example, as described above, modern FPGA circuits may include an onboard CPU, such as Fig. 20 One or more CPUs in the example CPU 2020. Therefore, Fig.17 The processor circuit 1712 and / or Fig.18 The processor circuit 1812 may additionally be combined by Fig.19 An example microprocessor 1900 and Fig. 20 In some such hybrid examples, the Figures 9 to 16 The first portion of the machine-readable instructions represented by the flowchart of Fig.19 1902 is executed by one or more cores of the core 1902, Figures 9 to 16 The second portion of the machine-readable instructions represented by the flowchart of Fig. 20 FPGA circuit 2000 to perform, and / or by Figures 9 to 16 The third portion of the machine-readable instructions represented by the flowchart may be executed by an ASIC. It should be understood that Figure 4 The control circuit 400 and / or Figure 5 Some or all of the circuits in the field device circuit 500 may thus be instantiated at the same or different times. For example, some or all of the circuits may be instantiated in one or more threads that are executed simultaneously and / or serially. Additionally, in some examples, Figure 4 The control circuit 400 and / or Figure 5 Some or all of the circuitry of the field device circuitry 500 may be implemented within one or more virtual machines and / or containers executing on a microprocessor.

[0259] In some examples, Fig.17 The processor circuit 1712 and / or Fig.18 The processor circuit 1812 may be in one or more packages. For example, Fig.19 The microprocessor 1900 and / or Fig. 20 The FPGA circuit 2000 can be in one or more packages. In some examples, the XPU can be composed of Fig.17 The processor circuit 1712 and / or Fig.18 The XPU may be implemented by a processor circuit 1812, which may be in one or more packages. For example, the XPU may be included as a CPU in one package, a DSP in another package, a GPU in yet another package, and an FPGA in yet another package.

[0260] Fig.21 A block diagram illustrating an example software distribution platform 2105 is shown. Fig.17 Example machine readable instructions 1732 and / or Fig.18The example software distribution platform 2105 may be implemented by any computer server, data facility, cloud service, etc. that can store software and send software to other computing devices. The third party may be a customer of the entity that owns and / or operates the software distribution platform 2105. For example, the entity that owns and / or operates the software distribution platform 2105 may be a third party such as Fig.17 Example machine readable instructions 1732 and / or Fig.18 The third party may be a consumer, user, retailer, OEM, etc., who purchases and / or licenses the software for use and / or resale and / or sub-licensing. In the illustrated example, the software distribution platform 1705 includes one or more servers and one or more storage devices. The storage device stores the machine-readable instructions 1732, which may be used with the machine-readable instructions 1732 as described above. Fig. 9 , Fig.10 , Fig.11 , Fig.13 and / or Fig.15 The storage device stores machine-readable instructions 1832, which may correspond to the example machine-readable instructions 900, the example machine-readable instructions 1000, the example machine-readable instructions 1100, the example machine-readable instructions 1300, and the example machine-readable instructions 1500 described above. Figures 12 to 16 The example machine-readable instructions 1200, example machine-readable instructions 1300, example machine-readable instructions 1400, example machine-readable instructions 1500, and example machine-readable instructions 1600 correspond to one or more of the example software distribution platform 2105. One or more servers of the example software distribution platform 2105 communicate with the example network 2110, which may correspond to any one or more networks on the Internet and / or any of the example networks 1726, 1826 described above. In some examples, one or more servers respond to a request to send software to a requesting party as part of a commercial transaction. Payment for the delivery, sale, and / or license of the software may be processed by one or more servers of the software distribution platform and / or by a third-party payment entity. The server enables the purchaser and / or licensor to download machine-readable instructions 1732, machine-readable instructions 1832 from the software distribution platform 2105. For example, the machine-readable instructions 1732, machine-readable instructions 1832 may be downloaded from the software distribution platform 2105. Fig. 9 , Fig.10 , Fig.11 , Fig.13 and / or Fig.15The example machine readable instructions 900, the example machine readable instructions 1000, the example machine readable instructions 1100, the example machine readable instructions 1300, and the example machine readable instructions 1500 are downloaded to the example processor platform 1700, and the example processor platform 1700 executes the machine readable instructions 1732 to implement Figure 4 In some examples, the control circuit 400 may be Figures 12 to 16 The example machine readable instructions 1200, the example machine readable instructions 1300, the example machine readable instructions 1400, the example machine readable instructions 1500, and the example machine readable instructions 1600 are downloaded to the example processor platform 1800, and the example processor platform 1800 will execute the machine readable instructions 1832 to implement Figure 5 In some examples, one or more servers of the software distribution platform 2105 periodically send software (e.g., Fig.17 Example machine readable instructions 1732 and / or Fig.18 Example machine readable instructions 1832) provide, send and / or force updates to ensure that improvements, patches, updates, etc. are distributed and applied to software at end-user devices.

[0261] From the foregoing, it will be appreciated that example systems, methods, apparatuses, and articles of manufacture for sequences of event generation for process control systems have been disclosed. The disclosed systems, methods, apparatuses, and articles of manufacture may capture sequences of events based on digital information from digital field devices rather than physical signals such as changes in voltage or current. The disclosed examples may capture sequences of events for analog process parameters, rather than just discrete process parameters. The disclosed examples may synchronize field devices together in time for the purpose of sequencing events. The disclosed examples may synchronize digital field devices and I / O systems in time to accommodate legacy device signals associated with I / O systems. The disclosed examples may configure field devices as signaling / publisher field devices and / or subscriber field devices via a computing system that communicates with a controller. The disclosed examples may authenticate field devices to achieve improved security for process control systems.

[0262] The disclosed examples can prevent network storms of events by identifying related events that have been broadcast to a process control system before generating new events. The disclosed systems, methods, apparatus, and articles of manufacture improve the efficiency of using computing devices by reducing network traffic of process control systems through network storm event prevention. Thus, the disclosed systems, methods, apparatus, and articles of manufacture are directed to one or more improvements in the operation of machines such as computers or other electronic and / or mechanical devices.

[0263] Example systems, methods, apparatus, and articles of manufacture for sequence of event generation for a process control system. Other examples and combinations thereof include the following:

[0264] Example 1 includes an apparatus comprising: at least one memory; machine-readable instructions; and a processor circuit to execute or instantiate at least one of the machine-readable instructions to: obtain a first digital signal from a first field device in a process control system, the first digital signal representing a first sensor data value tagged with a first timestamp, the first timestamp to be generated by the first field device; obtain a second digital signal from a second field device in the process control system, the second digital signal representing a second sensor data value tagged with a second timestamp, the second timestamp to be generated by the second field device; and store a data association of the first sensor data value and the second sensor data value in a data store, the data association representing a sequence of events associated with the process control system, the sequence of events including an order of the first sensor data value and the second sensor data value based on the first timestamp and the second timestamp.

[0265] Example 2 includes the apparatus of Example 1, wherein the processor circuit is to obtain the first digital signal and the second digital signal based on a network communication protocol.

[0266] Example 3 includes the apparatus of Example 1, wherein the processor circuit is to determine that at least one of the first sensor data value or the second sensor data value represents a logical zero or a logical one.

[0267] Example 4 includes the apparatus of Example 1, wherein the processor circuit is to determine that at least one of the first sensor data value or the second sensor data value represents a current measurement or a voltage measurement.

[0268] Example 5 includes the apparatus of Example 1, wherein the processor circuit is to synchronize at least one of a first clock of the first field device or a second clock of the second field device with a third clock associated with the processor circuit.

[0269] Example 6 includes the apparatus of Example 1, wherein the processor circuit is to synchronize a first clock of the first field device with a second clock of the second field device.

[0270] Example 7 includes the apparatus of Example 1, wherein the process control system includes an input / output (I / O) system and a third field device, and a processor circuit for: obtaining a third digital signal from the I / O system; and determining that the third digital signal represents a third sensor data value marked with a third timestamp, the third sensor data value to be measured by the third field device, and the third timestamp to be generated by the I / O system.

[0271] Example 8 includes the apparatus of Example 1, wherein the processor circuit is used to: send configuration data to a second field device, the configuration data including an event subscription identifier, the event subscription identifier being used to identify the second field device as a subscriber of the first field device; and obtain a second digital signal from the second field device after an event is generated by the first field device, the second field device sending the second digital signal after receiving the event from the first field device, the event including the event subscription identifier.

[0272] Example 9 includes the apparatus of Example 1, wherein at least one of the first digital signal or the second digital signal is not associated with an event, the data association is a first data association, and the processor circuit is used to: determine that at least one of the first sensor data value or the second sensor data value indicates an abnormal condition associated with at least one of the first field device or the second field device; and store metadata and a second data association of at least one of the first sensor data value or the second sensor data value, the metadata being used to identify at least one of the first sensor data value or the second sensor data value as being associated with the abnormal condition.

[0273] Example 10 includes at least one non-transitory machine-readable medium, which includes instructions that, when executed, cause a processor circuit to at least: obtain a first digital signal from a first field device in a process control system, the first digital signal representing a first sensor data value marked with a first timestamp, the first timestamp to be generated by the first field device; obtain a second digital signal from a second field device in the process control system, the second digital signal representing a second sensor data value marked with a second timestamp, the second timestamp to be generated by the second field device; and store a data association of the first sensor data value and the second sensor data value in a data store, the data association representing a sequence of events associated with the process control system, the sequence of events including an order of the first sensor data value and the second sensor data value based on the first timestamp and the second timestamp.

[0274] Example 11 includes the at least one non-transitory machine-readable medium of Example 10, wherein the instructions, when executed, cause the processor circuit to obtain the first digital signal and the second digital signal based on a network communication protocol.

[0275] Example 12 includes the at least one non-transitory machine readable medium of Example 10, wherein the instructions, when executed, cause the processor circuit to determine that at least one of the first sensor data value or the second sensor data value represents a logical zero or a logical one.

[0276] Example 13 includes the at least one non-transitory machine-readable medium of Example 10, wherein the instructions, when executed, cause the processor circuit to determine that at least one of the first sensor data value or the second sensor data value represents a current measurement or a voltage measurement.

[0277] Example 14 includes the at least one non-transitory machine-readable medium of Example 10, wherein the instructions, when executed, cause the processor circuit to synchronize at least one of a first clock of the first field device or a second clock of the second field device with a third clock associated with the processor circuit.

[0278] Example 15 includes the at least one non-transitory machine readable medium of Example 10, wherein the instructions, when executed, cause the processor circuit to synchronize a first clock of the first field device with a second clock of the second field device.

[0279] Example 16 includes at least one non-transitory machine-readable medium of Example 10, wherein the process control system includes an input / output (I / O) system and a third field device, and the instructions, when executed, cause the processor circuit to: obtain a third digital signal from the I / O system; and determine that the third digital signal represents a third sensor data value marked with a third timestamp, the third sensor data value to be measured by the third field device, and the third timestamp to be generated by the I / O system.

[0280] Example 17 includes at least one non-transitory machine-readable medium of Example 10, wherein the instructions, when executed, cause the processor circuit to: cause configuration data to be sent to a second field device, the configuration data including an event subscription identifier, the event subscription identifier being used to identify the second field device as a subscriber to the first field device; and after an event is generated by the first field device, obtain a second digital signal from the second field device, the second field device sending the second digital signal after receiving the event from the first field device, the event including the event subscription identifier.

[0281] Example 18 includes at least one non-transitory machine-readable medium of Example 10, wherein at least one of the first digital signal or the second digital signal is not associated with an event, the data association is a first data association, and the instructions, when executed, cause the processor circuit to: determine that at least one of the first sensor data value or the second sensor data value indicates an abnormal condition associated with at least one of the first field device or the second field device; and store metadata with a second data association of at least one of the first sensor data value or the second sensor data value, the metadata being used to identify at least one of the first sensor data value or the second sensor data value as being associated with the abnormal condition.

[0282] Example 19 includes a method comprising: obtaining a first digital signal from a first field device in a process control system, the first digital signal representing a first sensor data value marked with a first timestamp, the first timestamp being generated by the first field device; obtaining a second digital signal from a second field device in the process control system, the second digital signal representing a second sensor data value marked with a second timestamp, the second timestamp being generated by the second field device; and storing a data association between the first sensor data value and the second sensor data value in a data storage, the data association representing a sequence of events associated with the process control system, the sequence of events comprising an order of the first sensor data value and the second sensor data value based on the first timestamp and the second timestamp.

[0283] Example 20 includes the method of Example 19, wherein the first digital signal and the second digital signal are based on a network communication protocol.

[0284] Example 21 includes the method of Example 19, wherein at least one of the first sensor data value or the second sensor data value represents a logical zero or a logical one.

[0285] Example 22 includes the method of Example 19, wherein at least one of the first sensor data value or the second sensor data value represents a current measurement or a voltage measurement.

[0286] Example 23 includes the method of Example 19, wherein the process control system includes a controller, and the method further includes synchronizing at least one of a first clock of the first field device or a second clock of the second field device with a third clock of the controller.

[0287] Example 24 includes the method of Example 19, further comprising synchronizing a first clock of the first field device with a second clock of the second field device.

[0288] Example 25 includes the method of Example 19, wherein the process control system includes a controller, an input / output (I / O) system, and a third field device, and the method also includes obtaining a third digital signal from the I / O system, the third digital signal representing a third sensor data value marked with a third timestamp, the third sensor data value is measured by the third field device, and the third timestamp is generated by the I / O system.

[0289] Example 26 includes the method of Example 19, further including: sending configuration data to a second field device, the configuration data including an event subscription identifier, the event subscription identifier being used to identify the second field device as a subscriber of the first field device; and obtaining a second digital signal from the second field device after an event is generated by the first field device, the second field device sending the second digital signal after receiving the event from the first field device, the event including the event subscription identifier.

[0290] Example 27 includes the method of Example 19, wherein at least one of the first digital signal or the second digital signal is not associated with an event, the data association is a first data association, and the method further includes: identifying at least one of the first sensor data value or the second sensor data value as indicating an abnormal condition associated with at least one of the first field device or the second field device; and storing metadata with a second data association of at least one of the first sensor data value or the second sensor data value, the metadata being used to identify at least one of the first sensor data value or the second sensor data value as being associated with the abnormal condition.

[0291] Example 28 includes an apparatus comprising at least one memory; machine-readable instructions; and a processor circuit for executing or instantiating at least one of the machine-readable instructions to at least: after determining that a measurement phase associated with a field device in a process control system is triggered, record a timestamp at the field device during the measurement phase; record a sensor measurement result associated with the timestamp at the field device; cause a digital signal representing at least one of the timestamp or the sensor measurement result to be sent from the field device to an electronic device using a network communication protocol; and cause a sequence of events for the field device to be generated based on the digital signal.

[0292] Example 29 includes the apparatus of Example 28, wherein the timestamp is a first timestamp recorded at the beginning of a measurement phase, the sensor measurement result is a first measurement result, the digital signal is a first digital signal, and the processor circuit is used to: record a second timestamp at the field device at the end of the measurement phase; record a second sensor measurement result associated with the second timestamp; cause a second digital signal representing the second timestamp and the second sensor measurement result to be sent from the field device to the electronic device using a network communication protocol; and cause generation of a sequence of events for the field device based on at least one of the first digital signal or the second digital signal.

[0293] Example 30 includes the apparatus of Example 28, wherein the timestamp is a first timestamp at the beginning of a measurement phase, the sensor measurement result is one sensor measurement result among a plurality of sensor measurements, and the processor circuit is used to: record a minimum value of the plurality of sensor measurements; record a maximum value of the plurality of sensor measurements; and cause the first timestamp, a second timestamp associated with the end of the measurement phase, the minimum value, and the maximum value to be sent to an electronic device using a network communication protocol.

[0294] Example 31 includes the apparatus of Example 28, wherein the field device is a first field device, the determination is a first determination, and the processor circuit is used to: receive an event from a second field device at the first field device; determine that the event includes an event subscription identifier; determine that the first field device is a subscriber to the second field device based on the event subscription identifier; and after a second determination that the first field device is a subscriber to the second field device, cause a digital signal to be sent to an electronic device.

[0295] Example 32 includes the apparatus of Example 31, wherein the event is a first event, the determination is a first determination, and after the second field device receives a second determination of the first event, the processor circuit is to determine not to broadcast the second event from the second field device to one or more subscribers of the second field device.

[0296] Example 33 includes the apparatus of Example 31, wherein the timestamp is a first timestamp, the event includes event data associated with the process control event, and the event data includes at least one of an event subscription identifier, an event identifier identifying the event, an event type identifying a type of the event, a second timestamp at which the event was observed, or a field device identifier identifying a first field device.

[0297] Example 34 includes at least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium including instructions that, when executed, cause a processor circuit to at least: after determining that a measurement phase associated with a field device in a process control system is triggered, record a timestamp at the field device during the measurement phase; record a sensor measurement associated with the timestamp at the field device; cause a digital signal representing at least one of the timestamp or the sensor measurement to be sent from the field device to an electronic device using a network communication protocol; and cause generation of a sequence of events for the field device based on the digital signal.

[0298] Example 35 includes at least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of Example 34, wherein the timestamp is a first timestamp recorded at the beginning of a measurement phase, the sensor measurement result is a first measurement result, the digital signal is a first digital signal, and the instructions, when executed, cause the processor circuit to: record a second timestamp at the field device at the end of the measurement phase; record a second sensor measurement result associated with the second timestamp; cause a second digital signal representing the second timestamp and the second sensor measurement result to be sent from the field device to the electronic device using a network communication protocol; and cause generation of a sequence of events for the field device based on at least one of the first digital signal or the second digital signal.

[0299] Example 36 includes at least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of Example 34, wherein the timestamp is a first timestamp at the beginning of a measurement phase, the sensor measurement result is one sensor measurement result among a plurality of sensor measurements, and the instructions, when executed, cause the processor circuit to: record a minimum value of the plurality of sensor measurements; record a maximum value of the plurality of sensor measurements; and cause the first timestamp, a second timestamp associated with the end of the measurement phase, the minimum value, and the maximum value to be sent to an electronic device using a network communication protocol.

[0300] Example 37 includes at least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of Example 34, wherein the field device is a first field device, the determination is a first determination, and the instructions, when executed, cause the processor circuit to: receive an event from a second field device at the first field device; determine that the event includes an event subscription identifier; determine that the first field device is a subscriber to the second field device based on the event subscription identifier; and after the second determination that the first field device is a subscriber to the second field device, cause a digital signal to be sent to the electronic device.

[0301] Example 38 includes at least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of Example 37, wherein the event is a first event, the determination is a first determination, and after the second field device receives a second determination of the first event, the instructions, when executed, cause the processor circuit to determine not to broadcast the second event from the second field device to one or more subscribers of the second field device.

[0302] Example 39 includes at least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of Example 37, wherein the timestamp is a first timestamp, the event includes event data associated with the process control event, and the event data includes at least one of an event subscription identifier, an event identifier identifying the event, an event type identifying a type of the event, a second timestamp at which the event was observed, or a field device identifier identifying a first field device.

[0303] Example 40 includes a method comprising: after determining that a measurement phase associated with a field device in a process control system is triggered, recording a timestamp at the field device during the measurement phase; recording a sensor measurement result associated with the timestamp at the field device; using a network communication protocol to send a digital signal representing at least one of the timestamp or the sensor measurement result from the field device to an electronic device; and causing a sequence of events for the field device to be generated based on the digital signal.

[0304] Example 41 includes the method of Example 40, wherein the timestamp is a first timestamp recorded at the beginning of a measurement phase, the sensor measurement result is a first measurement result, the digital signal is a first digital signal, and the method further includes: recording a second timestamp at the field device at the end of the measurement phase; recording a second sensor measurement result associated with the second timestamp; using a network communication protocol to send a second digital signal representing the second timestamp and the second sensor measurement result from the field device to the electronic device; and causing generation of a sequence of events for the field device based on at least one of the first digital signal or the second digital signal.

[0305] Example 42 includes the method of Example 40, wherein the timestamp is a first timestamp at the beginning of a measurement phase, the sensor measurement result is one sensor measurement result among multiple sensor measurement results, and the method further includes: recording a minimum value of the multiple sensor measurement results; recording a maximum value of the multiple sensor measurement results; and using a network communication protocol to send the first timestamp, a second timestamp associated with the end of the measurement phase, the minimum value, and the maximum value to an electronic device.

[0306] Example 43 includes the method of Example 40, wherein the field device is a first field device, and the method further includes: receiving an event from a second field device at the first field device; determining that the event includes an event subscription identifier; determining that the first field device is a subscriber to the second field device based on the event subscription identifier; and after determining that the first field device is a subscriber to the second field device, sending a digital signal to an electronic device.

[0307] Example 44 includes the method of Example 43, wherein the event is a first event, and after determining that the second field device receives the first event, the method further comprises determining not to broadcast a second event from the second field device to one or more subscribers of the second field device.

[0308] Example 45 includes the method of Example 43, wherein the timestamp is a first timestamp, the event includes event data associated with the process control event, the event data including at least one of an event subscription identifier, an event identifier identifying the event, an event type identifying a type of the event, a second timestamp at which the event was observed, or a field device identifier identifying a first field device.

[0309] The attached claims are hereby incorporated by reference into this detailed description. Although certain example systems, methods, devices, and articles have been disclosed herein, the coverage of this patent is not limited thereto. On the contrary, this patent covers all systems, methods, devices, and articles that reasonably fall within the scope of the claims of this patent.

Claims

1. A device comprising: at least one memory; machine-readable instructions; as well as a processor circuit to execute or instantiate at least one of the machine-readable instructions to: obtaining a first digital signal from a first field device in a process control system, the first digital signal representing a first sensor data value tagged with a first timestamp, the first timestamp to be generated by the first field device; obtaining a second digital signal from a second field device in the process control system, the second digital signal representing a second sensor data value tagged with a second timestamp, the second timestamp to be generated by the second field device; and A data association of the first sensor data value and the second sensor data value is stored in a data store, the data association representing a sequence of events associated with the process control system, the sequence of events including an order of the first sensor data value and the second sensor data value based on the first timestamp and the second timestamp. 2 . The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the processor circuit is configured to obtain the first digital signal and the second digital signal based on a network communication protocol. 3 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the processor circuit is to determine that at least one of the first sensor data value or the second sensor data value represents a logical zero or a logical one. 4 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the processor circuit is to determine that at least one of the first sensor data value or the second sensor data value represents a current measurement or a voltage measurement.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processor circuit is configured to synchronize at least one of a first clock of the first field device or a second clock of the second field device with a third clock associated with the processor circuit.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processor circuit is configured to synchronize a first clock of the first field device with a second clock of the second field device.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the process control system includes an input / output (I / O) system and a third field device, and the processor circuit is to: Obtaining a third digital signal from the I / O system; and It is determined that the third digital signal represents a third sensor data value tagged with a third time stamp, the third sensor data value to be measured by the third field device, the third time stamp to be generated by the I / O system.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processor circuit is configured to: sending configuration data to the second field device, the configuration data including an event subscription identifier, the event subscription identifier being used to identify the second field device as a subscriber of the first field device; and The second digital signal is obtained from the second field device after an event is generated by the first field device, the second field device sending the second digital signal after receiving the event from the first field device, the event including the event subscription identifier.

9. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the first digital signal or the second digital signal is not associated with an event, the data association is a first data association, and the processor circuit is to: determining that at least one of the first sensor data value or the second sensor data value indicates an abnormal condition associated with at least one of the first field device or the second field device; and Metadata is stored in association with second data of at least one of the first sensor data value or the second sensor data value, the metadata being used to identify at least one of the first sensor data value or the second sensor data value as being associated with the abnormal condition.

10. At least one non-transitory machine-readable medium, the at least one non-transitory machine-readable medium comprising instructions that, when executed, cause a processor circuit to at least: obtaining a first digital signal from a first field device in a process control system, the first digital signal representing a first sensor data value marked with a first timestamp, the first timestamp to be generated by the first field device; obtaining a second digital signal from a second field device in the process control system, the second digital signal representing a second sensor data value marked with a second timestamp, the second timestamp to be generated by the second field device; and A data association of the first sensor data value and the second sensor data value is stored in a data store, the data association representing a sequence of events associated with the process control system, the sequence of events including an order of the first sensor data value and the second sensor data value based on the first timestamp and the second timestamp.

11. The at least one non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 10, wherein the instructions, when executed, cause the processor circuit to obtain the first digital signal and the second digital signal based on a network communication protocol.

12. The at least one non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 10, wherein the instructions, when executed, cause the processor circuit to determine that at least one of the first sensor data value or the second sensor data value represents a logical zero or a logical one.

13. The at least one non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 10, wherein the instructions, when executed, cause the processor circuit to determine that at least one of the first sensor data value or the second sensor data value represents a current measurement or a voltage measurement.

14. The at least one non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 10, wherein the instructions, when executed, cause the processor circuit to synchronize at least one of a first clock of the first field device or a second clock of the second field device with a third clock associated with the processor circuit.

15. The at least one non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 10, wherein the instructions, when executed, cause the processor circuit to synchronize a first clock of the first field device with a second clock of the second field device.

16. The at least one non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 10, wherein the process control system includes an input / output (I / O) system and a third field device, and the instructions, when executed, cause the processor circuit to: Obtaining a third digital signal from the I / O system; and It is determined that the third digital signal represents a third sensor data value tagged with a third time stamp, the third sensor data value to be measured by the third field device, the third time stamp to be generated by the I / O system.

17. The at least one non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 10, wherein the instructions, when executed, cause the processor circuit to: causing configuration data to be sent to the second field device, the configuration data including an event subscription identifier, the event subscription identifier being used to identify the second field device as a subscriber to the first field device; and The second digital signal is obtained from the second field device after an event is generated by the first field device, the second field device sending the second digital signal after receiving the event from the first field device, the event including the event subscription identifier.

18. The at least one non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 10, wherein at least one of the first digital signal or the second digital signal is not associated with an event, the data association is a first data association, and the instructions, when executed, cause the processor circuit to: determining that at least one of the first sensor data value or the second sensor data value indicates an abnormal condition associated with at least one of the first field device or the second field device; and Metadata is stored in association with second data of at least one of the first sensor data value or the second sensor data value, the metadata being used to identify at least one of the first sensor data value or the second sensor data value as being associated with the abnormal condition.

19. A method comprising: obtaining a first digital signal from a first field device in a process control system, the first digital signal representing a first sensor data value tagged with a first timestamp, the first timestamp being generated by the first field device; obtaining a second digital signal from a second field device in the process control system, the second digital signal representing a second sensor data value marked with a second timestamp, the second timestamp being generated by the second field device; as well as A data association of the first sensor data value and the second sensor data value is stored in a data store, the data association representing a sequence of events associated with the process control system, the sequence of events including an order of the first sensor data value and the second sensor data value based on the first timestamp and the second timestamp.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the first digital signal and the second digital signal are based on a network communication protocol.

21. The method of claim 19, wherein at least one of the first sensor data value or the second sensor data value represents a logical zero or a logical one.

22. The method of claim 19, wherein at least one of the first sensor data value or the second sensor data value represents a current measurement or a voltage measurement.

23. The method of claim 19, wherein the process control system includes a controller, and the method further comprises synchronizing at least one of a first clock of the first field device or a second clock of the second field device with a third clock of the controller.

24. The method of claim 19, further comprising synchronizing a first clock of the first field device with a second clock of the second field device.

25. The method of claim 19, wherein the process control system includes a controller, an input / output (I / O) system, and a third field device, and the method further comprises: A third digital signal is obtained from the I / O system, the third digital signal representing a third sensor data value marked with a third time stamp, the third sensor data value being measured by the third field device, the third time stamp being generated by the I / O system.

26. The method of claim 19, further comprising: sending configuration data to the second field device, the configuration data including an event subscription identifier, the event subscription identifier being used to identify the second field device as a subscriber of the first field device; as well as The second digital signal is obtained from the second field device after an event is generated by the first field device, the second field device sending the second digital signal after receiving the event from the first field device, the event including the event subscription identifier.

27. The method of claim 19, wherein at least one of the first digital signal or the second digital signal is not associated with an event, the data association is a first data association, and the method further comprises: identifying at least one of the first sensor data value or the second sensor data value as indicative of an abnormal condition associated with at least one of the first field device or the second field device; as well as Metadata is stored in association with second data of at least one of the first sensor data value or the second sensor data value, the metadata being used to identify at least one of the first sensor data value or the second sensor data value as being associated with the abnormal condition.

28. An apparatus comprising: at least one memory; machine-readable instructions; as well as a processor circuit to execute or instantiate at least one of the machine-readable instructions to at least: After determining that a measurement phase associated with a field device in a process control system is triggered, recording a timestamp at the field device during the measurement phase; recording a sensor measurement associated with the timestamp at the field device; causing a digital signal representing at least one of the timestamp or the sensor measurement to be sent from the field device to an electronic device using a network communication protocol; and Generation of a sequence of events for the field device is caused based on the digital signal.

29. The apparatus of claim 28, wherein the timestamp is a first timestamp recorded at the beginning of the measurement phase, the sensor measurement is a first measurement, the digital signal is a first digital signal, and the processor circuit is to: recording a second time stamp at the field device at the end of the measuring phase; recording a second sensor measurement associated with the second timestamp; causing a second digital signal representing the second timestamp and the second sensor measurement to be sent from the field device to the electronic device using the network communication protocol; and Generation of the sequence of events for the field device is caused based on at least one of the first digital signal or the second digital signal.

30. The apparatus of claim 28, wherein the timestamp is a first timestamp at the beginning of the measurement phase, the sensor measurement is one sensor measurement of a plurality of sensor measurements, and the processor circuit is to: Recording the minimum value of the measurement results of the multiple sensors; recording a maximum value of the plurality of sensor measurements; and Using the network communication protocol causes the first timestamp, a second timestamp associated with an end of the measurement phase, the minimum value, and the maximum value to be transmitted to the electronic device.

31. The apparatus of claim 28, wherein the field device is a first field device, the determination is a first determination, and the processor circuit is to: receiving, at the first field device, an event from a second field device; determining that the event includes an event subscription identifier; determining, based on the event subscription identifier, that the first field device is a subscriber of the second field device; and The digital signal is caused to be transmitted to the electronic device after a second determination that the first field device is a subscriber of the second field device.

32. An apparatus according to claim 31, wherein the event is a first event, the determination is a first determination, and after the second field device receives a second determination of the first event, the processor circuit is used to determine not to broadcast a second event from the second field device to one or more subscribers of the second field device.

33. An apparatus according to claim 31, wherein the timestamp is a first timestamp, the event includes event data associated with a process control event, and the event data includes at least one of the event subscription identifier, an event identifier identifying the event, an event type identifying the type of the event, a second timestamp at which the event was observed, or a field device identifier identifying the first field device.

34. At least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, the at least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions that, when executed, cause a processor circuit to at least: After determining that a measurement phase associated with a field device in a process control system is triggered, recording a timestamp at the field device during the measurement phase; recording a sensor measurement associated with the timestamp at the field device; causing a digital signal representing at least one of the timestamp or the sensor measurement to be sent from the field device to an electronic device using a network communication protocol; and Generation of a sequence of events for the field device is caused based on the digital signal.

35. The at least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 34, wherein the timestamp is a first timestamp recorded at the beginning of the measurement phase, the sensor measurement is a first measurement, the digital signal is a first digital signal, and the instructions, when executed, cause the processor circuit to: recording a second time stamp at the field device at the end of the measuring phase; recording a second sensor measurement associated with the second timestamp; causing a second digital signal representing the second timestamp and the second sensor measurement to be sent from the field device to the electronic device using the network communication protocol; and Generation of the sequence of events for the field device is caused based on at least one of the first digital signal or the second digital signal.

36. The at least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 34, wherein the timestamp is a first timestamp at the beginning of the measurement phase, the sensor measurement is one of a plurality of sensor measurements, and the instructions, when executed, cause the processor circuit to: Recording the minimum value of the measurement results of the multiple sensors; recording a maximum value of the plurality of sensor measurements; and Using the network communication protocol causes the first timestamp, a second timestamp associated with an end of the measurement phase, the minimum value, and the maximum value to be transmitted to the electronic device.

37. The at least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 34, wherein the field device is a first field device, the determination is a first determination, and the instructions, when executed, cause the processor circuit to: receiving, at the first field device, an event from a second field device; determining that the event includes an event subscription identifier; determining, based on the event subscription identifier, that the first field device is a subscriber of the second field device; and The digital signal is caused to be transmitted to the electronic device after a second determination that the first field device is a subscriber of the second field device.

38. At least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium according to claim 37, wherein the event is a first event, the determination is a first determination, and after the second field device receives a second determination of the first event, the instructions, when executed, cause the processor circuit to determine not to broadcast a second event from the second field device to one or more subscribers of the second field device.

39. At least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium according to claim 37, wherein the timestamp is a first timestamp, the event includes event data associated with a process control event, and the event data includes at least one of the event subscription identifier, an event identifier identifying the event, an event type identifying a type of the event, a second timestamp at which the event was observed, or a field device identifier identifying the first field device.

40. A method comprising: After determining that a measurement phase associated with a field device in a process control system is triggered, recording a timestamp at the field device during the measurement phase; recording a sensor measurement associated with the timestamp at the field device; using a network communication protocol to transmit a digital signal representing at least one of the timestamp or the sensor measurement from the field device to an electronic device; as well as Generation of a sequence of events for the field device is caused based on the digital signal.

41. The method of claim 40, wherein the timestamp is a first timestamp recorded at the beginning of the measurement phase, the sensor measurement is a first measurement, the digital signal is a first digital signal, and the method further comprises: recording a second time stamp at the field device at the end of the measuring phase; recording a second sensor measurement associated with the second timestamp; using the network communication protocol to transmit a second digital signal representing the second timestamp and the second sensor measurement from the field device to the electronic device; as well as Generation of the sequence of events for the field device is caused based on at least one of the first digital signal or the second digital signal.

42. The method of claim 40, wherein the timestamp is a first timestamp at the beginning of the measurement phase, the sensor measurement is one sensor measurement of a plurality of sensor measurements, and the method further comprises: Recording the minimum value of the measurement results of the multiple sensors; Recording the maximum value of the measurement results of the multiple sensors; as well as The first timestamp, a second timestamp associated with an end of the measurement phase, the minimum value, and the maximum value are sent to the electronic device using the network communication protocol.

43. The method of claim 40, wherein the field device is a first field device, and the method further comprises: receiving, at the first field device, an event from a second field device; determining that the event includes an event subscription identifier; determining, based on the event subscription identifier, that the first field device is a subscriber of the second field device; as well as After determining that the first field device is a subscriber of the second field device, the digital signal is sent to the electronic device.

44. The method of claim 43, wherein the event is a first event, and after determining that the second field device received the first event, the method further comprises determining not to broadcast a second event from the second field device to one or more subscribers of the second field device.

45. A method according to claim 43, wherein the timestamp is a first timestamp, the event includes event data associated with a process control event, and the event data includes at least one of the event subscription identifier, the event identifier identifying the event, the event type identifying the type of the event, a second timestamp at which the event was observed, or a field device identifier identifying the first field device.

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