Siemens SIMATIC S7-300 Manual page 51

Address areas
Flags
Timers
Counters
Local data
Data blocks
Reference
The address areas of your CPU are listed in the
I/O process image
When the user program addresses the input (I) and output (O) address areas, it does not
query the signal states of digital signal modules. Instead, it rather accesses a memory area
in CPU system memory. This particular memory area is the process image.
The process image is organized in two sections: The process image of inputs, and the
process image of outputs.
Advantages of the process image
Process image access, compared to direct I/O access, offers the advantage that a consistent
image of process signals is made available to the CPU during cyclic program execution.
When the signal status at an input module changes during program execution, the signal
status in the process image is maintained until the image is updated in the next cycle.
Moreover, since the process image is stored in CPU system memory, access is significantly
faster than direct access to the signal modules.
S7-300 CPU Data: CPU 315T-2 DP
Manual, 12/2005, A5E00427933-02
6.1 Memory areas and retentive address areas
Description
This area provides memory for saving the intermediate results of
a program calculation.
Timers are available in this area.
Counters are available in this area.
Temporary data in a code block (OB, FB, FC) is saved to this
memory area while the block is being edited.
recipes measurement value logs
See ,
blocks.
Instruction list for CPUs 31xC and 31x
Memory concept
technology data
and
.
6-5