Patent ID: 8095695

Claim:
A control apparatus comprising: an input-output device configured to receive an input signal from a process for requesting a processing; a controller configured to carry out an control operation in accordance with the signal from the input-output device and to output a result of the control operation to the process via the input-output device, and has a timer unit configured to be excited at a constant period; a hardware part connected between the input-output device and the controller, and constituted by an I/O bus as a communication path of a control signal and data transmitted between the input-output device and the controller; and a software part, including an operating system part, configured to be executed in the controller, wherein the software part includes: an information process part configured to execute an information processing, a control process part configured to execute a control processing, a switchover part configured to switch between the information process part and the control process part; and wherein the operating system part includes: an information kernel service part configured to control the information process part, and to execute at least one information task, and a control kernel service part configured to control the control process part, and to execute at least one control task; wherein the switchover part is configured to suspend an execution of the information process part to execute the control process part in priority at every excitation of the timer unit; wherein the information process part and the control process part are configured to be switched over such that the execution of the information process part is resumed when the execution of the control process part is terminated; wherein the operating system part of the software part is configured to halt the information process part at each excitation of the timer and thereafter switch to the control process part.