Patent ID: 8175850

Claim:
A system for monitoring a machine, comprising: at least one sensor located about the machine that generates signals representative of a machine condition; and a monitoring module that monitors the signals generated from the at least one sensor, the monitoring module comprising: a first level signal processing component that generates a plurality of waveforms from the signals generated from the at least one sensor, each of the plurality of waveforms providing different frequency information and sample rates of the signals, wherein the first level signal processing component comprises a plurality of asynchronous waveform generators in parallel with a plurality of synchronous waveform generators clocked to a phase reference signal, the plurality of asynchronous waveform generators and the plurality of synchronous waveform generators each creating and synchronizing waveforms that collectively form the plurality of waveforms, wherein the plurality of asynchronous waveform generators generate waveforms without regard to the phase reference signal and the plurality of synchronous waveform generators generate waveforms that are in phase with the phase reference signal, the plurality of waveforms generated from the plurality of asynchronous waveform generators and the plurality of asynchronous waveform generators include waveforms synchronized with different sample rates configured to be made simultaneously available at the different sample rates; and a second level signal processing component comprising a plurality of signal processing blocks that are dynamically configurable to be linked to form at least one data path that defines a signal processing operation to be performed on at least one waveform selected from the plurality of waveforms generated from the first level signal processing component to determine at least one measurement relating to the management of the operation of the machine and at least one data path that defines a signal processing operation to be performed on at least one waveform selected from the plurality of waveforms generated from the first level signal processing component to determine at least one measurement relating to the safety protection of the machine, wherein configurability of measurements relating to the management of the operation of the machine is independent and non-interfering with the configurability of measurements relating to the safety protection of the machine.