The design of distributed control computer systems

The top-down approach in the design of Distributed Control Computer Systems, DCCS, is presented. The starting point of the study is three statements: (i) the design approach should be production process control oriented; (ii) for real time process control applications, computer networks require an efficient communication subsystem, the most important features of which are high reliability and short message transmission times and (iii) recent research has shown that the tools and methodologies used in both computing and control should be complementary to each other in order to solve some of the distributed control computer system/distributed computer control system design problems. The paper contains the design problems of distributed control computer systems, the presentation of the methods and tools for the study and design of the DCCS, the top-down approach in the design of the DCCS, and examples of two design stages.