An industrial personal computer, IPC, comprising: hardware, comprising a processor, a memory and an input/output interface; a plurality of virtual control devices (202 1 -202 x) and a hypervisor configured to create and manage the plurality of virtual control devices, wherein at least one virtual control device among the plurality of virtual control devices (202 1 -202 x) serves as a main control device on which a process of a redundant hot standby control system runs, and the remaining virtual control devices other than the at least one virtual control device serving as a main control device among the plurality of virtual control devices (202 1 -202 x) are standby control devices, wherein each standby control device corresponds to one virtual control device serving as the main control device in another IPC of the redundant hot standby control system, and is configured to run the same process as its corresponding main control device does; a general-purpose operating system, configured to provide a configuration management program and an interface for managing the plurality of virtual control devices (202 1 -202 x), wherein the hypervisor runs on the IPC hardware to allocate hardware resources to the virtual control devices (202 1 -202 x); wherein the IPC is configured to be connected to a central control device through a control bus of the redundant hot standby control system; wherein the virtual control devices serving as standby control devices are configured to feed alarm information back to the central control device of the redundant hot standby control system through the control bus, when they do not receive an heartbeat signal from their corresponding main control device in another IPC of the redundant hot standby control system through the control bus within a predetermined time; and wherein the virtual control devices serving as standby control devices are configured to receive a main/standby status switching indication from the central control device through the control bus and to modify an own main/standby status from standby to main and to output an own signal to a corresponding field device through a field bus connecting the IPCs of the redundant hot standby control system and the field device; and wherein the processor of the IPC is a multi-core processor having a plurality of cores, and the general purpose operating system is configured to run on one core of the multi-core processor and the virtual control devices are run on the remaining cores in one-to-one correspondence. hardware, comprising a processor, a memory and an input/output interface; a plurality of virtual control devices (202 1 -202 x) and a hypervisor configured to create and manage the plurality of virtual control devices, wherein at least one virtual control device among the plurality of virtual control devices (202 1 -202 x) serves as a main control device on which a process of a redundant hot standby control system runs, and the remaining virtual control devices other than the at least one virtual control device serving as a main control device among the plurality of virtual control devices (202 1 -202 x) are standby control devices, wherein each standby control device corresponds to one virtual control device serving as the main control device in another IPC of the redundant hot standby control system, and is configured to run the same process as its corresponding main control device does; a general-purpose operating system, configured to provide a configuration management program and an interface for managing the plurality of virtual control devices (202 1 -202 x), wherein the hypervisor runs on the IPC hardware to allocate hardware resources to the virtual control devices (202 1 -202 x); wherein the IPC is configured to be connected to a central control device through a control bus of the redundant hot standby control system; wherein the virtual control devices serving as standby control devices are configured to feed alarm information back to the central control device of the redundant hot standby control system through the control bus, when they do not receive an heartbeat signal from their corresponding main control device in another IPC of the redundant hot standby control system through the control bus within a predetermined time; and wherein the virtual control devices serving as standby control devices are configured to receive a main/standby status switching indication from the central control device through the control bus and to modify an own main/standby status from standby to main and to output an own signal to a corresponding field device through a field bus connecting the IPCs of the redundant hot standby control system and the field device; and wherein the processor of the IPC is a multi-core processor having a plurality of cores, and the general purpose operating system is configured to run on one core of the multi-core processor and the virtual control devices are run on the remaining cores in one-to-one correspondence.