Logisire, A safe computer system for process-automation

Abstract

Over the past years, conventional electrical devices (such as relay circuits) have to an increasingly greater degree been replaced in safety related areas (for example, traffic engineering) by their electronic counterparts. Owing to the growing degree of automation for such uses (for example, in rapid-transit vehicles without drivers), the safety related requirements placed on automation systems have become more and more extensive and complex to such an extent that the employment of safe computer systems in safe process-automation systems has become an accepted necessity. The term safety in this context is intended to represent the ability of a system, under stated conditions and for a stated period of time, to perform its function in such a manner that the system will neither give rise to a danger, nor allow such a danger to occur /1/.