DICOS: A Real-Time Distributed Industrial Control System for Embedded Applications

Abstract The Fault-tolerant Systems Research Group of the Technical University of Valencia has developed the distributed industrial control system (DICOS) system. This paper describes DICOS nodes. The architecture of DICOS nodes and the error detection mechanisms used are presented. These mechanisms are based on the internal capabilities of the 16-bit microcontroller used and control flow checking and deadlines control with the aid of a second 8-bit microcontroller. Experimental results about the effectiveness of those mechanisms are shown in this paper.

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