Patent ID: 7627455

Claim:
A distributed operations system with integrated diagnostics having a first bus and a second bus, the system comprising: a field device for generating a field operating characteristic; a field processing module for receiving the field operating characteristic from the field device, the field processing module includes a field diagnostic component and a field communication component configured for communication over the first bus, said field processing module is configured for generating field operating data including a field diagnostic parameter as a function of the field operating characteristic; and an auxiliary processing module configured for communicating with the first bus and receiving the field operating data, said auxiliary processing module including an auxiliary diagnostic component and an auxiliary communication component having a bus interface and a gateway component, said auxiliary processing module configured for generating auxiliary field data as a function of the field operating data and for communicating the auxiliary field data over the second bus; wherein the field operating characteristic is indicative of a sensed temperature and the field device is a temperature sensor selected from the group consisting of a thermocouple, a resistance temperature detector, a thermopile, a diode, a semiconductor sensor, a resonance temperature sensor, an infrared sensor, and a thermistor; and wherein the field processing module is configured for determining a sensed temperature as a function of the field operating characteristic and the field diagnostic parameter.