Patent ID: 7719961

Claim:
An industrial control system communications adapter, comprising: a first connection operatively coupleable to a general purpose industrial network, wherein the general purpose industrial network is an industrial EtherNet network; a second connection operatively coupleable to a second network for communicating with at least one device on the second network; a third connection operatively coupleable to a third network for communicating with at least one device on the third network, the third network being an open architecture device network selected from the group consisting of a Foundation Fieldbus H1 or HSE network, a Profibus DP, PA, or FMS network, a DeviceNet network; an AS-i network, a Modbus network, and a HART network, wherein the open architecture device network and the general purpose industrial network are not directly compatible with one another; and a bridging system operatively coupled with the first, second, and third connections and providing communications bridging for the general purpose industrial network, the second network, and the third network.