Abstract: A method and apparatus to control the flow of data from a plurality of independent turbine-generator data sources includes converting each serial stream of data from each source into parallelly formatted digital characters. These characters are stored in a dedicated buffer. When the buffer is full or when a specified time lapses for each partially filled buffer, the buffer is emptied through a parallel to serial converter into the data logger.

Abstract: A dedicated supervisory control system for a steam turbine-generator comprising a hierarchy of microcomputer subsystems interactive with a conventional analog electrohydraulic control system to provide control and monitoring capabilities during all operating phases of the turbine-generator. The separate microcomputer subsystems are programmed for coordinated interaction and communication through shared, dual-port read/write memory units and each microcomputer subsystem is programmed and configured to handle a separate group of control responsibilities in a distributed control system.

Abstract: A multiprocessor microcomputer system having two or more substantially independent processors each of which has its own bus-type interconnection structure, and a shared memory accessible by any of the processors without interferring with the proper operation of the other processors. Controlled access to the memory by connecting the memory to the processor requesting access when only one such request is present and to the last processor to have received access when more than one request is received simultaneously allows autosynchronous operation, automatic selection of priority and high speed of operation.