JPS59133613A - Software verifying method of process controller - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To verify software easily without connecting a special device, by setting data for verification and checking operated data from a man-machine interface device. CONSTITUTION:In case of verification of software, connections among input control parts 28, output control parts 29, and control blocks 30 are made ineffective, and input/output data of individual control blocks are not transferred. In this state, data of a control block in a main memory is read out by the indication from a man-machine interface device 25, and data of an input data part 36, an output data part 37, a function decription language classification storage part 38, and a function description part 39 are described in the form of a control block 35 on a screen 34 of a CRT. A processing according with the description part 39 is performed after a certain input pattern is written in the data part 36 by the device 25, and the result is written in the data part 37 and is displayed on the screen 34. This processing result is read by the device 25 to discriminate whether it is a prescribed pattern or not. This operation is performed for all blocks.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a method for verifying software that is incorporated into a process control device and determines the operation of the process control device.

In a process control device in which many operations are determined by software, the quality of the software verification method is one of the important factors that influences the performance of the process control device.

FIG. 1 shows an example of a general system configuration when performing software t-verification using a conventional method. As shown in the figure,
A simulated input device 5 is connected to the input section 3 of the process control device 1, and an output display device 6 is connected to the output section 4. First, a certain input pattern is input from the simulated input device 5 to the process control device 1. Thereafter, when the process control device 1 performs processing based on this input, the output pattern obtained at the output section 4 is read by the output display device 6 to determine whether the output pattern corresponds to the input pattern. Check.

By the way, in this method, it is necessary to separately prepare the input simulation device 5 and the output display device 6. Additionally, if there is a defect in the software, it is necessary to comprehensively judge which part of the software is defective based on the state of the input/output signals, and a certain level of skill is required to detect the defect. . Furthermore, if there is a change in the software after connecting the process to be actually controlled and the input and output parts of the process control device, the process to be controlled should be connected to the process control device for verification. The disadvantage is that it is necessary to disconnect the process from the process controller and then connect the input simulation device and output display device, and then to reconnect the process to the process control device after verifying the software.

In view of the above, an object of the present invention is to provide a software verification method that eliminates such drawbacks and allows software verification to be easily performed without connecting a special device.

According to the present invention, this purpose is to divide the entire control processing content into a plurality of control functions, and to create an input data section for storing input data to be processed and an input data section corresponding to each control function. Control consisting of a function description section that describes and stores the content to be processed in an optimal description language, a function description language type storage section that indicates the type of the description language, and an output data section that stores the results of processing input data. A block, a connection table that instructs the transfer of data of the control block, and a description language of the function description section that executes the transfer of data of the control block according to the connection table, and refers to the function description language type storage section. A process control device is configured from an arithmetic processing device that decodes and executes the data, and after giving a command to disable data transfer of the control block according to the connection table, a predetermined value is sent to the input data section for each control block. adding an input cover turn, performing processing according to the contents of the function description section, and checking whether data in the output data section obtained as a result of this processing is a predetermined output cover turn corresponding to the input cover turn; This is achieved by verifying the software of each control block.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be explained in detail based on embodiments shown in the drawings.

First, the configuration of a process control device to which a software verification method according to the present invention is applied will be described. FIG. 2 shows a schematic configuration diagram of a process control device to which the present invention is applied. In the figure, 7 is an arithmetic processing unit, 8 is a common path, 9 is a main memo, and 10 is a process input/output device. It shows. The arithmetic processing unit 7, main memory 9, and process input/output device 10 are connected to each other via a common node 8. In such a configuration, software is created using the following steps.

1) Understand the overall control processing content and divide it into multiple control functions.

2) Allocate one control block to each control function.

3) Create an inter-control block connection table and specify data transfer between blocks.

4) The processing content of each control block is described by selecting the most suitable description language for each process. Problem-oriented language for control,
A combination of functional modules is selected for processing that mainly involves control and analog calculations, and assembler language is selected for extremely specific control processing.

Software creation is completed through these steps, and a conceptual diagram of this software creation is shown in FIG. That is, as shown in FIG. 3, input data sections 11a to lid store input data to be processed in control blocks A, B, C, and D allocated for each control function, respectively;
Output data sections 12a to 12d that store the results of processing input data; function description sections 14a to 14d that describe and store the contents of processing input data in various descriptive languages; and indicate the type of this descriptive language. Function description language type storage sections 13a to 13d are provided, and input data sections 11a to lid and output data section 12 of each control block are provided.
By connecting a to 12d on software in accordance with the control processing content, the overall control processing content is realized. Then, a plurality of control blocks as shown in FIG. 3 (note that four control blocks are shown in FIG. 3, but of course the number is not limited to this number) can be stored within one shelf. are stored to configure a process control device. Input/output cards are inserted into this shelf. Furthermore, in order to configure a highly functional system, a plurality of shelves may be used and control blocks within each shelf may be connected. The entire system with such a configuration will be explained using FIG. 4. As shown in FIG. 4, there are four control blocks A in one shelf 15.

Assuming that there are H, C, and D, these control blocks A,
The input data sections and output data sections of B, C, and D are connected to the input control section 16 or output control section 17, and the input data section 15a and output data section 15b of the shelf 15.
and the control blocks in other shelves. Note that some shelves do not have connections between the control block and the input control section 16 and output control section 17.

Each such control block is specifically stored in the main memory 9 shown in FIG. FIG. 5 is a schematic configuration diagram of this main memory 9, and each control block A, B, C, D has an input data section 11a to a lid% output/output data section 2a 12d shown in FIG. Description language type storage section 1
3a to 13d and function description parts 14a to 14d are provided. In addition to such control blocks, the main memory 9 is also provided with inter-control block connections 9. This inter-control block connection table 18 specifies the reception and passing of data between each control block.
A table is constructed for each input data in the input data section of each control block.

Further, the control block and the output control section 17. The output control section 17 and the input data section 15a of the shelf 15 are used to specify the transfer of data between the output data section 15b of the shelf 15 or between the shelves.

The output data section 15b is regarded as a control block, and a connection table 19 for each input data of the output control section and a connection table 20 for each data of the output data section 15b of the shelf 15 are prepared. and a connection table for each data in the input data section 15a of the shelf 15 (connection table between shelves) 2
1 is configured. Note that the connection between the input control unit 16 and the control block is unnecessary because it is specified by trapping the control block connection table for each input data in the input data section of the control block.

The connection table of the input data section 11b of the control block B in FIG. 3 is shown in FIG. 6 as an example. In Fig. 3, the 2nd 4.32nd input data of control block B is the 34th output data of control block C, the 33rd output data of control block A, and the 63rd output data of control block A. wired. Therefore, the connection table includes the control block number section 22 and the output data number section 2.
Control block numbers C, A, and A output data numbers 34, 33°63 are stored in locations corresponding to 32.4.32, respectively. When the input data section of the control block is connected to the input data section or input control section of the shelf,
The shelf number and input control unit number are written in the control block number section. Also.

The numbers of other shelves are written in the control block number section of the connection table in the input data section of the shelf 15. Note that a data area (not shown) is provided in the main memory 9 so that the input control section 16, the output control section 17, and the input data section and output data section of the shelf are regarded as control blocks.

In such a configuration, the arithmetic processing unit 7 sets the data of the output data section of the connection light in the input data section of each control block according to each connection table. Note that data in the output data section of another shelf is set in the input data section of the shelf, and data in the data section of the connected control block is set in the output control section. The arithmetic processing unit 7 refers to the function description language type storage section to find out in which language the function description section is written, processes the data in the input data section according to the description, and uses the results as output data. Set it in the section. The arithmetic processing unit 7 executes this series of procedures for each control block in numerical order of the control blocks, thereby realizing the entire control processing content. Note that the processing of the control blocks corresponding to the input control unit 16, output control unit 17, input data section, and output data section of the shelf is performed by the input control unit 16, the output control unit 17, and the input data section and output data section of the shelf. The data is imported from the control block. In order to implement such a procedure, software for decoding and executing each functional description language is incorporated in the arithmetic processing unit 7.

Next, a method for verifying the software of the process control device configured as described above will be explained.

FIG. 7 is a schematic configuration diagram of a system when a device for verifying software is connected to a process control device. In the figure, 24 is a process control device, 25 is a man-machine interface device, and 26 is a C-T device. , 27 indicates the No-Tokobee device. The man-machine interface device 25U is normally included in the process control device 24. A method for verifying software in such a system will be explained using FIGS. 8(a) and 8(b). FIGS. 8(a) and 8(b) show conceptual diagrams of the process control apparatus when software verification is not performed and when it is performed, respectively. In addition, in FIG. 8, the connections between the shelves are shown as a representation. If the software is not verified, the input card 28, output card 29, and control block 30 in the process control device 24 are connected as shown in FIG. 8(a).
The process control device 24 receives commands and information from the man-machine interface device 25 via the interface section 33, and the arithmetic processing device 31 performs overall control processing according to the connection table 32.

On the other hand, when verifying software, as shown in FIG. 8(b), the input control section 28, the output control section 2
9. Disable the connections between the control blocks 30 so that input/output data of each control block is not transferred. Specifically, the man-machine interface @25 gives an instruction to invalidate the connection to the process control device 24, and sets the invalid connection flag, which is referred to during program execution, to 11''.

The arithmetic processing unit 31 refers to this connection invalid flag as shown in the flowchart of FIG. 9, and if this flag is 'O'', it newly imports the data of the connection destination according to the connection table and then processes it. and writes output data as a processing result, but if this flag is 1#, processing is performed using the data that has already been imported without importing input data. Writes the output data as a processing result.By doing this, only the processing described in the functional description language is performed without passing data between the input control section, output control section, and control block. .

In such a state, the data of the control block in the main memory mentioned above is read out and transferred to the CRT device 26 (FIG. 7) according to instructions from the man-machine interface device 25.
As shown in the CRT screen 341C in FIG. 39 is omitted if it cannot be displayed). Then, after writing the input pattern in the input data section 36 of the control block by the man-machine interface device 25, processing according to the function description section 39 is performed, and the processing result is written to the output data section 37, and then the CRT It is displayed on the screen 34. This processing result is read by the man-machine interface device 25 to check whether it is a predetermined pattern corresponding to the input cover pattern. By performing such processing for all control blocks, it is possible to verify the software in units of p% control blocks. If necessary, the CR and T screens, which are the software verification results, can be captured on the hard copy device 27. After the verification of each control block is completed, the man-machine interface device 25 gives a connection valid command to the process control device 4 to set the connection invalid flag to '0', and then the process shown in FIG.
It enters the state a) and starts controlling the process.

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to set verification data and check calculated data from the man-machine interface device, so there is no need to prepare a separate device. In addition, by structuring the software of the process control device in such a way that the control blocks are connected by wires, and by disabling the wires during software verification, the connection between the process to be controlled and the process control device is not disconnected. software can be verified. Furthermore, since verification can be performed for each control block, even if there is a defect in the software, the location can be easily detected.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a system configuration diagram using a conventional software verification method, FIG. 2 is a schematic configuration diagram of a process control device to which the present invention is applied, FIG. 3 is a conceptual diagram of software creation for the process control device, and FIG. An overall system diagram of the process control device, FIG. 5 is a schematic configuration diagram of the main memory, FIG. 6 is a configuration diagram showing an example of a connection table between control blocks, and FIG. 7 is a system configuration diagram according to the software verification method of the present invention. FIG. 8 is a conceptual diagram of the process control device in the software verification method according to the present invention, FIG. 9 is an operation flowchart of the arithmetic processing device during software verification according to the present invention, and FIG.
Figure 0 shows a CRT screen during software verification. 7... Arithmetic processing unit, 8... Common bus, 9... Main memory, 10... Process input/output device, A, B, C,
D... Control table, lla to 11d... Input data section, 12a to 12d... Output data section, 1
3a to 13d...Function description language type storage section, 14
a to 14d... Function description section, 15... Shelf, 16.28... Input control section, 17.29... Output control section, 18, 19, 20.21... Connection table,
25...Man-machine interface! , 26°゛. CRT device, 27...Hard copy device. /1 2 m t'3 Figure 'f'4 Figure zS T8 Concave q m 2'lθ n 73-

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1) Divide the entire control processing content into multiple control functions,
An input data section that stores input data to be processed corresponding to each control function, a function description section that describes and stores the contents of processing the input data in an optimal description language, and the type of the description language. A control block consisting of a function description language type storage section indicating the function description language type and an output data section storing the results of processing input data, a connection table that instructs the transfer of the data of the control block, and a control block that transfers the control block according to the connection table. This is to verify the software of the process control device equipped with the arithmetic processing unit that transfers data and refers to the functional description language type storage section to decode and execute the description language of the function description section. Then, after giving a command to disable the data transfer of the control block according to the connection table, for each control block, cut a predetermined input pattern into the input data section and modify the contents of the function description section. The software of each control block is verified by performing the corresponding processing and checking whether the data in the output data section obtained as a result of this processing is a predetermined output pattern corresponding to the input pattern. A software verification method for a process control device, characterized in that: