Communications, information, maintenance diagnostic and training system

Claim 2

A data and communications system useful for providing interchange of data between a host computer, individual personal computers, factory machinery, including process controllers, a portable computing unit, and other controller/computing equipment and devices, comprising, a host computer interconnected with a network of interface units connecting other computers and factory machine/process controllers, a self-contained portable computing unit for communication with said host computer, other computers and machine/process controllers, and a communications link providing for data transfer and control between each of said host computer, other computers, machine/process controllers and said self-contained portable computing unit.

Claim 3

The system according to claim 1, wherein said network of interface units includes an infrared link for communicating with the self-contained portable computing unit.

Claim 4

The system according to claim 1, including alarm circuits interconnected with said machine/process controllers to indicate a machine/process out-of-parameter indication, an interface circuit with said alarm circuit for communicating an alarm signal to the network of interface circuits and to computers, and to at least one of the self-contained computing units.

Claim 5

The system according to claim 3, wherein a machine/process out-of-parameter indication communicated to a self-contained computing unit includes information to identify the machine/process having an out-of-parameter condition, and an indication of what constitutes the out-of-parameter condition.

Claim 6

The system according to claim 1, including a communications satellite, a first interface network for directly interfacing the satellite with one or more machine/process controllers, a second interface network for directly interfacing the satellite with a host computer, and an infrared data transmission link for communicating with one or more self-contained portable computing units.

Claim 7

The system according to claim 5, wherein said second interface network has provision for interfacing with at least one other computer.

Claim 8

A data and communications system useful for providing interchange of data between a host computer, individual personal computers, factory machinery, including process controllers, one or more portable computing units, and other controller/computing equipment and devices, comprising, an infrared communications satellite within a factory environment, a host computer, a network of interface units interconnecting the satellite with the host computer and with other computers and factory machine/process controllers, a self-contained portable computing unit for communication with said host computer, at least one printer, a file server, other computers and machine/process controllers, and a communications link within the satellite providing transfer and control between each of said host computer, other computers, machine/process controllers, and said self-contained portable computing unit.

Claim 9

A data and communications system useful for providing interchange of data between a host computer, individual personal computers, factory machinery, including process controllers, one or more portable computing units, and other controller/computing equipment and devices, comprising, an infrared communications satellite within a factory environment, a host computer, a network of interface units interconnecting the satellite with the host computer and with other computers and factory machine/process controllers, a self-contained portable computing unit for communication with said host computer, at least one printer, a file server, other computers and machine/process controllers, and a communications link within the satellite providing transfer and control between each of said host computer, other computers, machine/process controllers, and said self-contained portable computing unit.

Claim 10

The system according to claim 7, wherein said infrared link is a wireless network and includes at least one satellite unit coupled to the network of interface units for communicating with at least one of the self-contained portable computing units.

Claim 11

The system according to claim 7, wherein said network of interfacing units includes a first interface network for direct interfacing the satellite with one or more machine/process controllers, a second interface network for direct interfacing the satellite with a host computer, and the communications link is an infrared data transmission link for communicating with one or more self-contained portable computing units.

Claim 12

A self-contained portable computing unit, comprising, a processor unit, a boot ROM, and input/output ROM, at least one input/output port, a communication interface, a RAM memory, a display, and a display touch scanner.

Claim 13

A self-contained portable computing unit, comprising, a processor unit, a boot ROM, and input/output ROM, at least one input/output port, a communication interface, a RAM memory, a display, and a display touch scanner.

Claim 14

The computing unit according to claim 10, wherein the communication interface is an infrared communication interface.

Claim 15

The computing unit according to claim 10, including an optical disk interface and a compact disk system.

Claim 16

The computing unit according to claim 10, wherein the display is a liquid crystal display and is programmable to have touch sensitive areas on the screen for input to the computing unit.

Claim 17

The computing unit according to claim 13, wherein the touch input is programmable to provide a matrix keypad and graphics icon input.

Claim 18

The computing unit according to claim 13, including first and second processor units for independently programming each half of the display screen for text and graphic display.

Claim 19

A self-contained portable computing unit, comprising, a processor unit, a boot ROM including programming for unit initialization, an input/output ROM, at least one input/output port, a communication interface for automatic addressing and communication with the computing unit from a remote source, a RAM memory, a display, and a display touch scanner.

Claim 20

A self-contained portable computing unit, comprising, a processor unit, a boot ROM including programming for unit initialization, an input/output ROM, at least one input/output port, a communication interface for automatic addressing and communication with the computing unit from a remote source, a RAM memory, a display, and a display touch scanner.

Claim 21

The computing unit according to claim 16, wherein the communication interface is an infrared communication interface.

Claim 22

The computing unit according to claim 16, including an optical disk interface and an optical disk system.

Claim 23

The computing unit according to claim 17, wherein the infrared communications interface, includes infrared transmit and receive circuits to provide infrared communications to and from the computing unit.

Claim 24

The computing unit according to claim 16, including at least one serial input/output port, an optical disk port, and at least one parallel interface port.