Product Overview GEM80-400
Page xxiv ALSPA GEM80-400 SERIES CONTROLLERS TECHNICAL MANUAL Issue 3 04/99
During the power up sequence the GEM80-400 Processor Module copies from
the Rack Id switches to the Rack Id V-table. The user may define this value by
setting the 2 decade rotary switches mounted on either the GEM80-400
Processor Module or, in the case of the GEM80-400 Enhanced Controller, on the
backplane of the controller subrack.
The rack Id V-table may be read by the user program to determine, for example,
if the user program is executing in the system it was intended for, or used to tailor
user generated report messages with system location information.
3.3. GEM 80-400 Alphanumeric Display
Any non zero value written to "F1" by the user program to activate a User
Requested Watchdog Trip is also written to the four-character front panel
mounted alphanumeric display. This allows an application program to provide
visible diagnostic information to the system operator or maintenance engineers.
Application error numbers are prefixed with a "!" and system error numbers are
prefixed with a "#".
3.4. System Log
The controller maintains a battery backed and time stamped log of the last 100
system events. Programming errors detected by the compiler, during an
attempted compilation of a user program, are also recorded in the System Log.
The errors may be displayed at the same time as the user program (providing a
suitable GEM
80 programming tool is being used, such as Gemesys 3), as an aid
to fault finding. Each compilation error contains a rung and instruction
reference. See also paragraph 7.4 of this section
3.5. Architecture Improvements
Both the software and hardware architecture of the GEM
80-400 have been
significantly improved (with respect to previous GEM
80 controllers). Amongst the
large number of performance enhancing improvements included in the GEM
80-
400 systems are:
•
the use of a faster processor,
•
storing the data required to execute a ladder program in the faster on-board
RAM,
•
reducing the system overheads,
•
allocating the time assigned to the operation of the processor module self
checks to be a percentage of the user program scan time.
4. Expandability and Adaptability
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