Patent ID: 8203980

Claim:
An industrial control system communications adapter, comprising: a first connection operatively coupleable to a first open architecture network, the first open architecture network being a routable industrial network; a second connection operatively coupleable to a proprietary protocol network for communicating with at least one device on the proprietary protocol network; a third connection operatively coupleable to a second open architecture network for communicating with at least one device on the second open architecture network wherein the second open architecture network is a Fieldbus network; and a bridging system operatively coupled with the first, second, and third connections and providing communications bridging for the first open architecture network, the second open architecture network, and the proprietary protocol network; wherein the first connection, the second connection, the third connection, and the bridging system are integrated into a single module that can be coupled with a backplane for communicating with at least one device on the proprietary protocol network.