# Basics of Distributed Control System (DCS)

**URL:** <https://forumautomation.com/t/basics-of-distributed-control-system-dcs/203>\
**Category:** DCS (Distributed Control Systems)\
**Created:** [December 27, 2014, 1:52am UTC](https://forumautomation.com/t/basics-of-distributed-control-system-dcs/203 "2014-12-27T01:52:15Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![denizen](https://forumautomation.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/848f3c/32.png) [@denizen](https://forumautomation.com/u/denizen)\
**Post date:** [December 27, 2014, 1:52am UTC](https://forumautomation.com/t/basics-of-distributed-control-system-dcs/203/1 "2014-12-27T01:52:17Z")

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DISTRIBUTED CONTROL SYSTEM A system of dividing plant or process control into several areas of responsibility, each managed by its own controller, with the whole system connected to form a single entity, usually by means of communication buses

Used for continuous control of chemical processing Control functions are distributed throughout redundant, deterministic networked computer architecture I/O interface and level 1 control functions advanced control functions human interface DCS replaced the mainframe computers of the 1970’s non-distributed single point of failure Added a high level of robustness to control systems Pre-configured functionality geared toward process industries, but have a relatively high cost