state.  If capable, the controller will re-boot into the FAIL state.  When a timeout of a 
control-critical task occurs, the controller generates the appropriate alarms (Diagnostic 
Alarm - Critical Task Watchdog Warning), but no other action is taken by the controller. 
There is an exception to this behavior where a timeout occurs when the controller CPU is 
heavily loaded and the CPUFREE parameter indicates less than 5%.  The controller does 
not take any action and does not re-boot into a FAIL state. 
 
Tasks critical to view 
Tasks executing in the controller, which are critical to view, such as communication with 
I/O, display or peer devices, may not execute as required due to excessive loading of the 
CPU.  The CPU overloading due to tasks other than executing control and result in a 
sustained level of CPU Free at 0% (CPU usage is 100%) may cause a loss of view of the 
controller. 
When a timeout of a view-critical task occurs, the controller generates the appropriate 
alarms (Diagnostic Alarm - Critical Task Watchdog Warning), but no other action is 
taken by the controller. 
 
7.14 
C300 Controller processing overload behavior 
The C300 Controller is able to handle controller processing overload conditions when the 
controller is required to perform more work than it has time for.  The execution of control 
strategies or control processing usually demands the most resources in terms of processor 
time and is the most likely cause of an overload condition in a controller, (although  
other non-control processing causes can produce controller overloads).  When  
the C300 controller detects an overload, it will 'borrow' time from control execution by 
suspending control processing in a defined and predictable manner.  This allows the 
controller to continue operation to provide control and maintain view and communication 
under these conditions. 
Controller operation is structured in terms of a 'base cycle' in which key processing tasks 
are executed.  An overload condition may occur when the controller is scheduled to 
perform more tasks than can be completed within a base cycle. For example, a controller 
is scheduled to execute more control processing tasks than is recommended, which may 
include control, I/O and communications processing tasks.  If the scheduled tasks cannot 
be completed by the controller within the base cycle, a control overrun occurs. 
Control overruns are reported as a diagnostic event in the C300CEE block as 'cycle 
overruns', (CRCYCLEOVRN and LSCYCLEOVRN parameters).  The controller 
manages cycle overruns when the scheduled processing for a cycle does not finish by 
85% of the ‘base cycle’ time in the following ways depending on the range of scheduled 
processing time.