Patent ID: 7945818
Filing Date: 2011-05-17
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. A method for the coupling of a safety-critical process from a safe environment, which has at least a first redundant processing channel and a second redundant processing channel, to an environment that is unsafe or to an environment that is safe but has fewer processing channels, said method comprising: processing a data record that is relevant to the safety-critical process, using the first and second processing channels in accordance with identical laws, wherein the first processing channel forms a first redundant safe protocol and the second processing channel forms a second redundant safe protocol; and forming an additional identical common safe protocol based on the first redundant safe protocol and the second redundant safe protocol, by accessing a common buffer register, in which case a write authorization is allocated only once for each register location in the common buffer register; wherein, when writing elements of the additional identical common safe protocol using corresponding elements of the first redundant safe protocol of the first processing channel, in which the first processing channel has the write authorization, wherein access to the common buffer register for the purpose of storing the elements of the additional identical common safe protocol is enabled only when i) the elements of the additional identical common safe protocol to be stored and ii) corresponding elements of the second redundant safe protocol are identical to one another.