Measuring units measure state signals of an industrial technical process.
The entirety of the state signals represents an image of the process. The
measuring units transmit the state signals to a common logic unit which
transmits the image of the process at least partially via a transmission
medium to a computing device. The computing device executes a control
program to determine at least a portion of the control state for the
process and transmits the portion to the logic unit via the transmission
medium. The control state includes control signals for a number of
control devices. The logic unit transmits to each of the control devices
the control signals intended for the respective control device. The
control devices affect the process accordingly. The above steps are
repeatedly executed in real-time with a cycle time in a range of
milliseconds or less.