ABACUS 4 - Linux
Based on more than 25 years of development and use ABACUS 4 is the
latest in a line of process control software systems with the ABACUS
name. ABACUS 4 runs on standard intel PC hardware under the Linux
operating system.
The demo is available at ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/commercial/abacus-4.980817.tar.gz
As of Wed Feb 10 08:37:13 CET 1999 the abacus manual has been revised
to include engdraw.
A Profibus driver which allows use of the PEP Computers SMART I/O subsystem
has been developed - see http://www.pep.de/products/products/smartplc/sm_ini.htm
for more information. A PROFIBoard
from Softing is required.
Wed Jun 30 10:04:09 CEST 1999 - These pages have been moved to http://hem2.passagen.se/frankmcn/abacus4.html
because of changes in the terms of service at geocities after takeover
by yahoo. If you find any nonfunctional links please mail me at abacusabacus@hotmail.com
As of summer 1999 modbus is available in the standard ABACUS4 edition.
Later this year a SIOX protocol driver will become available.
The manual has been reworked and updated into a single document (~240k)
as is available here.
Process Control System
The ABACUS 4 process control system is a block based software system
for the real time control of industrial and other continuous and batch
processes.
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dedicated blocks to predetermined functions, including
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System
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Process I/O
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pibus ai
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p.d.o.
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dig input
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dig output
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indata I/O
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analogue out
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Timing & counting
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Logical
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Process control and calculation
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control
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alarm code
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motor
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p.i.d.
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External program execution
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Graphical engineering interface, allowing block schemes to be designed,
implemented and documented all with the same program.
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Continuous saving of current ABACUS 4 data in binary files
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Block program may be saved in 'symbolic' format for importing into other
ABACUS
4 systems.
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Largely compatible with earlier ABACUS systems allowing quick upgrading.
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Journal information is stored in plain ASCII text files, easily exported
anywhere for analysis and storage
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Reports may be in plain text or SYLK format (for importing onto EXCEL,
LOTUS etc.).
Process I/O systems
The plant connection to ABACUS 4 may be achieved using a variety
of hardware including the rack mounted PI-Bus system from Bristol Babcock,
the
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DAS08, DAS16 EISA bus cards
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Primarily designed for lab use, these cards are available in a wide variety
of configurations, from several different manufacturers
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These cards are mounted internally, and give the fastest response, but
require external isolation, and conversion for 4-20 mA etc.
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Rack mounted PI-Bus system from Bristol Babcock
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This extremely robust process I/O system was designed for the nuclear power
industry where quality and long life were prerequisites.
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BSAP based process controllers (BBL 3330 etc.)
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A wide variety of BSAP based controllers has been produced over the last
20 years or more. They communicate with each other via an RS485 serial
network with speeds up to 1Mb. (Intel hardware cannot reach this speed
yet however)
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INDATA's uPLC range
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This range of PLC hardware offers an attractive price performance ratio,
together with comprehensive PLC functionality.
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MODBUS
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ABACUS can serve as a Modbus master via standard serial ports (with suitable
external conversion to RS485). This allows connection to a vast range of
industrial equipment.
Networking
Since ABACUS 4 runs on the Linux operating system it is fully TCP/IP
compatible.
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TCP/IP Ethernet
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The world standard for data communication (used in The Internet) affords
quick and reliable communications between any number of computers in one
or more networks.
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SLIP, CSLIP, PPP serial speeds up to 115KBaud
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For remotely sited installations where dial-up telephone, or radio communications
is required any of these protocols may be used between locations.
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Communicates with BBL Enterprise Server (VAX)
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Using either Ethernet or one of the serial protocols, ABACUS 4 can
send to and receive data from an Enterprise Server.
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The Internet.
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Since the communicating protocol is TCP/IP ABACUS 4 systems may
be directly connect to The Internet and engineering (even operator) functions
may be performed from anywhere in the world! (Subject of course to the
normal UNIX security regimes)
Operator Interface
The ABACUS 4 operator interface is X windows based, allowing comprehensive
displays distributed over the TCP/IP network. Local Ethernet, local and
modem serial links and even The Internet.
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X windows, full graphics displays viewable on any X terminal on the network
(subject to security controls)
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X windows is a multiplatform graphics display system widely used on Unix
and other operating systems. X is built on a client server basis. Thus
it is possible to run a program on one computer using the display of another
anywhere on the network.
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Full graphics mimics with a wide variety of display facilities
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Displays may be written in Tcl/Tk. Tcl (Tool Command Language) is a scripting
language, Tk is a graphical user interface.
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Real Time Trends
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Journal display
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Alarm summery
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Report display
Engineering facilities
The ABACUS 4 block program is edited on the running machine completely
eliminating the compiling, and downloading of other systems. There is a
text based engineers tools, very useful over slow serial links, and a graphics
based engineering tool using X.
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Block program edited on the running system, thus eliminating compiling,
and downloading
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Text based engineers tool allowing changing of any block parameter, monitoring
of any parameter, printing of complete block, or range of blocks.
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X based graphics engineers tool facilitating design, implementation and
documentation of block schemes. Click here
for a screen dump.
Screen dumps
The following is taken from a pumping station control system demonstration.
Pumping Station Mimic
This display and the others in this demonstration are constructed using
the Tcl/Tk languages. These have the advantage that they are freely available
for Windows95, UNIX, Macintosh, Windows3.1 (etc.) and WindowsNT
Trend Display
Trends are stored in local binary files, and displayed (with continuous
update) with the trend display.
Process Mimic Display
Dynamic numerical values updated continuously, level in 'Distillate Storage'
is also dynamic.
Alarm Status Display
This displays the currently unacknowledged alarms. Active, unacknowledged
alarms flash red, and have U in the first column (useful if viewed on a
monochrome screen, or printout)
Journal Display
This display allow the operator to see the last 200 (configurable) events
in the journal file. The display may be scrolled up to examine earlier
lines.
The Unix/ABACUS version of the Software
Reference Manual (old version) is available in HTML format. New version
is here.
History of ABACUS
The first ABACUS (Data General 1200)
ABACUS 4 is the latest of a line which started in the early 1970's.
The first ABACUS systems ran on DATA GENERAL 1200 minicomputers with 32
Kb (later 64 Kb) of main (yes ferrite core) memory, and no magnetic disks!
Operators could change setpoints etc. via specially constructed 'Operators
panels' with seven segment displays and buttons. A KSR 110 baud printer
complete with paper tape reader and punch was used for the engineering
interface. (An engineers or 'command' panel was used at one stage, but
was found to be too expensive, and inflexible and so was discontinued).
There were software blocks for process I/O (analog inputs, digital inputs
and outputs and pulse duration outputs for process control) logic (checklist,
switch and pattern blocks) and process control was done with the 'control'
block. Later logging blocks of various sorts were added when text and semigraphic
displays appeared and replaced the first panels. All numerical calculations
were performed in 16 bit 'fixed point' decimal or integer format.
The process I/O was custom made and was driven directly by cards mounted
in the computer. External isolation mudules made for a robust if rather
expensive process I/O system. The analog input system used the flying capacitor
technique later employed in the PI-Bus system.
ABACUS II (PDP)
In the early 1980's ABACUS II was born. This system ran under the RSX11M
operating system on PDP 11 minicomputers. First PDP 11/23, then PDP 11/73.
The first systems was diskless, but the majority had 10, 30 and then 70
Mb disks used for the operating system and historical/trend data storage
in addition to data dumping. These systems were used to control paper machines
steam generating boilers and various other industrial applications.
Some new blocks were added, but the 16 bit 'fixed point' decimal or
integer format, whilst altered from +/- 255.99 to +/- 327.67, remained.
This was important for speed of execution in the days when floating point
processors added significant cost!
The process interface used was Bristol Babcock's PI-Bus. This was developed
to serve several different processors each having a different 'bus converter'
card. PI-Bus was in fact used on the last of the original ABACUS systems.
PI-Bus is a bus system built around a double height 19 inch Euro rack.
18 cards per rack. Digital input and output cards accommodate 16 signals
per card, analog inputs have 8 'flying capacitor' inputs on each multiplexor
card in addition two extra cards (Analog Input Controller Card AICC, and
Calibration card).
VAX ABACUS
In the early 1990's ABACUS was completely rewritten in C and implemented
using the VMS operating system and became VAX ABACUS. Floating point numbers
and the ability to reconfigure the number of each block type without recompilation
were new features of this system. The operators interface was the Bristol
Babcock Enterprise. The Server half of which ran on the same VAX machine,
and one or more external PCs running OS/2 supported the Enterprise Windows
operator station. Process I/O was the distributed SIOX system from Telefrang
AB. PI/Bus was connectable as an upgrade to PDP systems.
ABACUS 4
ABACUS 4 started as a porting of VAX ABACUS to Linux (the free Un*x
operating system found on a large number of Internet servers around the
world). New process I/O drivers have been added, most notably for the Computerboards
DAS08 series of IDE cards, and the Indata distributed uPLC range. A new
graphical engineers tools has been implemented allowing design, implementation,
and documentation of the control scheme from one and the same X based program.
ABACUS 4 / Linux will run on any supported intel based computer
hardware, thus hardware costs benefiting from large scale mass production.
Hardware being easily second sourced, and replaced with commercially available
equipment in emergencies.
The operator interface may be either an existing Enterprise Server/Windows,
or an X based display system.
Enquiries
If you are interested in trying ABACUS 4 a demo version is available below.
Please send any mail to abacusabacus@hotmail.com
. Please let me know of your success or otherwise.
Demo
Requirements
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A running Linux (This was built on Slackware 3.5 run on Slackware 3.4,
but should work on others)
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A working X (I use fvwm95, there is a .fvwm2rc95 file present, you may
have to rename/delete .xsession)
Get thedemo - ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/commercial/abacus-4.980817.tar.gz.
This will run for two hours before you must restart it.
The file contains a README.1ST file in /home/abacus. It is designed
to be installed with installpkg (Slackware) or as root (cd / ; tar -xzvf
where_ever_it_is/abacus-4.980817.tar.gz
) . It contains all the files for the user abacus who has as his/her HOME=/home/abacus.
You are required to create such a user.
Good luck!
ABACUS Manual
The ABACUS 4 manual is included in the demo release file, but if you want
to browse it now press here.
Last updated Wed Sep 15 07:46:07 CEST 1999by Frank McNamara.