Introduction

• Distributed embedded real-time systems play an important role in this concept
• Such systems should economically be changed by controlled evolution
• Production downtimes during system evolution need to be avoided
• Controlled evolution of distributed embedded real-time Industrial Automation and Control Systems (IACS) is therefore a prerequisite
• Component-based reconfiguration of control logic is technically hardly possilbe in current IACS architectures
• IEC 61499 - "Function Blocks for Industrial Process Measurement and Control Systems" features first basic concepts
• it defines platform independent reconfiguration services at device level