3.1.

Program Structure

www.hcmute.edu.vn
Types of Program Structure
 A linear program executes all of the instructions
for your automation tasks in sequence, one after
the other
Typically, the linear program puts all of the program
instructions into the OB for the cyclic execution of the
program (OB1)

 A modular program calls specific code blocks

that perform specific tasks
Each code block provides the program segment for
each subordinate task
www.hcmute.edu.vn
www.hcmute.edu.vn
Organization blocks (OB)
A OBs are the interface between the
operating system and the user program.
They are called by the operating system
and control, for example, the following
processes:
 Startup behavior of the controller
 Cyclic program processing
 Interrupt-controlled program
processing
 Error handling
www.hcmute.edu.vn
www.hcmute.edu.vn
Organization blocks (OB)
 OBs are called by the
operating system of the
controller.
 Several Main OBs can be
created in a program. The
OBs are processed
sequentially by OB number.

www.hcmute.edu.vn
www.hcmute.edu.vn
Function (FC)
 FCs are blocks without cyclic data
storages
 The values of block parameters
cannot be saved until the next call
and have to be provided with actual
parameters when called

 An FC does not have an associated

instance data block (DB)

www.hcmute.edu.vn
www.hcmute.edu.vn
Function Block (FB)
 FBs are blocks with cyclic data
storage, in which values are
permanently stored
 The cyclic data storage is realized in
an instance DB

www.hcmute.edu.vn
www.hcmute.edu.vn
 Data Block (DB)
 Data blocks (DB) is used to store data for the code blocks
 The data stored in a DB is not deleted when the execution of the associated
code block comes to an end
 Two types of DBs:
 An instance DB: stores the data for a specific FB
 A global DB: stores data for the code blocks. Any OB, FB, or FC can
access the data in a global DB

www.hcmute.edu.vn
www.hcmute.edu.vn
Instance Data Block
 Instance DBs are always assigned to
a FB
 Instance DBs are created
automatically when calling an FB
 The structure of the instance DB is
specified in the appropriate FB and
can only be changed there

www.hcmute.edu.vn
www.hcmute.edu.vn
Global Data Block
 All blocks in the user program can
access global DBs
 The structure of the global DBs can
be arbitrarily made up of all data
types
 Global DBs are either created via the
program editor or according to a
previously created “user-defined PLC
data type”
 A maximum of 256 structured tags
(ARRAY, STRUCT) can be defined
www.hcmute.edu.vn
www.hcmute.edu.vn