Patent ID: 8554978

Claim:
An automation appliance comprising: at least one field bus interface for connection to a field bus and for transmission of data packets (DP) with process data (PD) via the field bus; at least one local bus interface for connection to a local bus and for transmission of process data (PD) between field devices connected to the local bus and the automation appliance; means for converting the data packets (DP) coming from the field bus into a data stream (DS) for the local bus and for converting the data stream (DS) sent from the local bus to the automation appliance into data packets (DP) for the field bus; and an acceleration unit for selecting the process data (PD) that are to be converted in accelerated fashion and for separately converting the selected process data (PD S ), wherein the acceleration unit is set up such that the selected process data (PD S ) are output at an earlier time than unselected process data (PD N ) which are transmitted as well as in combination with the selected process data (PD S ), wherein the acceleration unit is designed to select the process data (PD) as hardware logic with a state recognition unit for recognizing the state of the presence of the selected process data (PD S ) that are to be processed in accelerated fashion from the data packets (DP) or the data stream (DS), and wherein the automation appliance is set up to process the unselected process data (PD N ) using software with a processor-controlled processing unit, while the selected process data (PD S ) are processed using hardware logic more quickly than the unselected process data (PD N ) which are transmitted as well as in combination with the selected process data (PD S ).