The Impact Of Modern Software Technology On The Man-Machine Interface In Process Control Systems

The increased performance of modern computing hardware gives the use of software technologies even in dedicated process control systems (PCS), which were originally developed for use in an office environment or mainframe computers. Object oriented programming has led to a new type of user interface found commonly on PC machines, which can be used to yield a more technology oriented interface in PCS. The use of Unix and its tools as a standard provides new ways of implementing PCS structures independent of hardware and the separation of processing and visualising stations.