Patent ID: 6898468

Claim:
A function block entity for use in a process plant having a processor adapted to control one or more field devices, the function block entity comprising: a computer readable medium; and a function block stored on the computer readable medium and adapted to be executed on the processor, the function block including; a set of cause inputs adapted to receive cause signals from within the process plant each of the cause signals indicating a presence or an absence of a detected cause condition; one or more effect outputs adapted to provide an effect signal to produce an effect within the process plant; cause and effect matrix logic relating each of the cause inputs to the effect outputs; a multiplexer coupled to each of the cause inputs that uses the cause and effect matrix logic to generate one or more trip signals; and one or more state machines, each state machine being coupled to a different one of the trip signals and being coupled to a different one of the effect outputs, wherein each state machine is adapted to force an associated effect output to a tripped value in response to an associated one of the trip signals.