Abstract: The computer node architecture provides a separate computer for the execution of the respective one of the application software and the middleware software, with an interface precisely defined in the time and value range provided between said two computers, and thus to decouple largely these two subsystems so that development is improved and the time needed for real-time applications better foreseeable.

Abstract: The computer node architecture provides a separate computer for the execution of the respective one of the application software and the middleware software, with an interface precisely defined in the time and value range provided between said two computers, and thus to decouple largely these two subsystems so that development is improved and the time needed for real-time applications better foreseeable.

Abstract: Method for ensuring the fail-silent property in the time domain of remote communication computers (111, . . . 114) of a fault-tolerant distributed computer system, in which a plurality of remote computers are connected via a distributor unit (101, 102), each remote computer has an independent communications controller unit with the corresponding connections to the communication channels (121), and the access to the communication channels occurs by a cyclical time-division multiple access method. The at least one distributor unit makes sure, by virtue of the correct sending behavior of the remote computer that is known a priori by it, that a remote computer can only send to the other remote computers within its statically assigned time slice.