Abstract
Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs) are playing an increasing role in the construction of safety critical systems. The standard IEC 1131–3 defines a number of interrelated languages for the expression of PLC programs.
Here we consider a subset of the IEC 1131–3 languages, that of function blocks, and present an assessment of the standard from the viewpoint of providing a formal semantics to that subset. In doing so, we also provide justification for our decisions in resolving ambiguities in the standard. Finally, we comment on the overall structure of the standard and, particularly, on how it relates function blocks to the other programming elements.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
IEC. International Standard 1131–3, Programmable Controllers, Part 3, Programming Languages, 1993
Dijkstra E. A Discipline of Programming. Series in Automatic Computation, Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1976
Hoare C.A.R. An Axiomatic Basis for Computer Programming. Communications of the ACM, 12(10), pp. 576–580, 1969
Manna Z, Pnueli A.The Temporal Logic of Reactive and Concurrent Systems, Volume 1, Specification. Springer Verlang, 1992
Halang W, Jung S, Kramer B, Scheepstra J. A Safety Licensable Computing Architecture. World Scientific, 1993
B. Kramer, N. Volker. A Highly Dependable Computing Architecture for Safety-Critical Control Applications. Real-Time Systems Journal, 1996
Egger G, Fett A, Pepper P.Formal Specification of a Safe PLC Language and Its Compiler. Proceedings of SafeComp’94, ISA, 1994
Bloomfield R, Bowers J, Emmet L, Viller S. PERE: Evaluation and Improvement of Dependable Processes. Proceedings of SafeComp’96, 1996
Tourlas K. Semantic Analysis and Design of Languages for PLCs. M.Sc. thesis, The University of Edinburgh, 1997
Milner R. Communication and Concurrency. Prentice Hall, 1989
Anderson S, Tourlas K. Diagrams and Programming Languages for Programmable Controllers. To appear in the Proceedings of Formal Methods Europe, 1997
Parr E. Programmable Controllers, An Engineer’s Guide. Newnes, 1993
Swainston F.A. Systems Approach to Programmable Controllers. Newnes,1991
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1997 Springer-Verlag London Limited
About this paper
Cite this paper
Tourlas, K. (1997). An Assessment of the IEC 1131-3 Standard on Languages for Programmable Controllers. In: Daniel, P. (eds) Safe Comp 97. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-0997-6_17
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-0997-6_17
Publisher Name: Springer, London
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-76191-4
Online ISBN: 978-1-4471-0997-6
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive