The dual core bit-byte CPU must be equipped with properly designed circuits, providing interface between the two processor units, and making it possible to exploit all its advantages like versatility of the byte unit and speed of the bit unit. First of all, the interface circuits should be designed in such a way, that they don’t disturb maximally parallel operation of the units, and that the CPU as a whole works in the same manner as in a standard PLC. The paper presents hardware solutions supporting effective operation of PLC CPU-s. Possibilities of solving problems concerning data exchange between a CPU and peripheral circuits were presented, with a special stress on timers and counters, and also on data exchange between the bit unit and the byte unit. The objective of the proposed solutions is to decrease the time necessary for a CPU to access its peripheries.

The paper describes a prototype operator panel, which was designed to operate with the S7-200 family of Programmable Logic Controllers (PLC-s) from Siemens. Most of the functionality of the operator panel was implemented in a computer program, which runs on a PC-class computer. The program communicates with a PLC through its communication port configured in the Freeport mode. Two kinds of interface between the PC, and the PLC are supported: wired, and wireless. For wired connection a standard PC/PPI cable supplied by Siemens is used. For wireless connection two communication modules were designed, which operate in the free 433 MHz band. The operator panel program is intuitive, and easy to use. States of PLC inputs and outputs are presented using graphical objects. It is possible to modify states of the outputs, and monitor and edit any variable in the M and V memory in the PLC. The application supports also alarming. The program can be run on any computer with the MS Windows operating system installed. This makes the solution very cost-effective. Providing both wired and wireless communication radically increases flexibility of the proposed solution. The panel can be quickly mounted in areas, where pulling new cables is inconvenient, difficult or expensive.

The paper discusses the water resources of the Krężniczanka River catchment. The catchment with an area of 224.9 km2 is located south-west of Lublin. The characteristics of the groundwaters and runoff were determined based on hydrological and hydrogeological materials of the Department of Hydrology of the Maria Curie-Skłodowska University (UMCS). Mean runoff in the period from 2010 to 2016 amounted to 125.7 mm, precipitation 629.4 mm, and evapotranspi-ration 503.7 mm. A strong relationship was determined between the rhythm of runoff and ground-water level fluctuations. The contribution of groundwater supply in total runoff equalled 81.5%.

The paper presents the characteristics of shallow groundwaters of the Polesie National Park – one of five national parks in Poland, where main subjects of protection are water-peatland ecosystems. Its functioning depends on the state of water resources. Data from field mapping at the turn of July and August 2013 used for the analysis show untypically high location of groundwaters in the summer period. Such a situation was caused by abundant atmospheric alimentation that occurred in spring and early summer of the analysed year.