According to an aspect, there is provided a solution for providing an access to a slave unit. An address from a master unit trying to access a slave unit is received (400). The received address is mapped (402) to a slave address. Default access permissions are associated (404) to the master-slave connection. Additional access permissions associated with the master unit and the slave address are determined (406). The master-slave connection is enabled (408) if additional access permissions allow the master unit to access the slave, otherwise the connection is rejected.

According to an aspect, there is provided a solution for providing an access to a slave unit. An address from a master unit trying to access a slave unit is received (400). The received address is mapped (402) to a slave address. Default access permissions are associated (404) to the master-slave connection. Additional access permissions associated with the master unit and the slave address are determined (406). The master-slave connection is enabled (408) if additional access permissions allow the master unit to access the slave, otherwise the connection is rejected.

A communication device includes a communication interface unit configured to receive control data from a master, the control data including data in a predetermined transmission format of a first protocol to be transmitted from a communication partner device to a slave, a storage unit configured to store the data of the first protocol received by the communication interface unit, an encapsulator configured to convert the data of the first protocol stored in the storage unit into data of a second protocol, and a communication unit configured to transmit the data of the second protocol converted by the encapsulator to the communication partner device.

A communication device includes a communication interface unit configured to receive control data from a master, the control data including data in a predetermined transmission format of a first protocol to be transmitted from a communication partner device to a slave, a storage unit configured to store the data of the first protocol received by the communication interface unit, an encapsulator configured to convert the data of the first protocol stored in the storage unit into data of a second protocol, and a communication unit configured to transmit the data of the second protocol converted by the encapsulator to the communication partner device.

A method for communicating between a master and a plurality of slaves includes generating a communication frame including generating a slave data frame in each slave. The slave data frame has a data packet including one or more data bytes and at least one gap of variable time length comprising no information in the slave data frame. The gap may be at the beginning of said slave data frame before the beginning of the first data byte of said data packet and/or at the end of said data packet after the end of a last data byte of said data packet, where the gaps have a time length dependency based on parameters locally stored in each of said at least one slave. The slave data frame is transmitted sequentially where the gap increases for each subsequent slave.

A method for communicating between a master and a plurality of slaves includes generating a communication frame including generating a slave data frame in each slave. The slave data frame has a data packet including one or more data bytes and at least one gap of variable time length comprising no information in the slave data frame. The gap may be at the beginning of said slave data frame before the beginning of the first data byte of said data packet and/or at the end of said data packet after the end of a last data byte of said data packet, where the gaps have a time length dependency based on parameters locally stored in each of said at least one slave. The slave data frame is transmitted sequentially where the gap increases for each subsequent slave.

A control system for a process or manufacturing installation includes a first and second operator station servers, wherein one operator station server operates as master and the other of operates as slave that inherits master functionality when the master fails, respective data archives are implemented on the first and second operator station servers, the first and second operator station servers each receive data of the technical installation and record it in the respective data archive, and the first and second operator station servers each ascertain a respective health state, where the first and second operator station servers continuously record in the respective data archive, at specified time intervals, which health state the respective operator station server has when receiving and recording the data of the technical installation, and whether the respective operator station server acts as master or as slave in the respective time interval.

A control system for a process or manufacturing installation includes a first and second operator station servers, wherein one operator station server operates as master and the other of operates as slave that inherits master functionality when the master fails, respective data archives are implemented on the first and second operator station servers, the first and second operator station servers each receive data of the technical installation and record it in the respective data archive, and the first and second operator station servers each ascertain a respective health state, where the first and second operator station servers continuously record in the respective data archive, at specified time intervals, which health state the respective operator station server has when receiving and recording the data of the technical installation, and whether the respective operator station server acts as master or as slave in the respective time interval.

The methods and systems may provide a scalable round-robin arbiter tree that performs round-robin arbitration for a plurality of requests received from a set of requestors. The round-robin arbiter may stack a plurality of round-robin cells in stages where an output of a first stage of round-robin cells is an input to a next stage of round-robin cells. The round-robin arbiter may transform an arbitration state at each stage of the arbitration and propagate the arbitration state into the next stage for arbitration. The arbitration state from the final stage round-robin cell is fed back to the first stage of the round-robin cells and used in a subsequent arbitration round.

An access control system controls access to a shared resource for various functional circuits. The access control system can include a comparison circuit, a processing circuit, and a selection circuit. The comparison circuit receives identification data associated with a functional circuit based on a transaction initiated by the functional circuit, and compares the identification data and reference data to generate a select signal. The processing circuit receives error data and response data outputted by the shared resource based on an execution of the transaction, and generates another response data. The selection circuit selects and outputs, based on the select signal, one of the response data outputted by the shared resource and the response data generated by the processing circuit as a transaction response that is to be provided to the functional circuit.