US Patent 11442740 Supporting instruction set architecture components across releases

Various embodiments of the present technology generally relate to methods and systems for providing a flexible, updatable, and backward compatible programmable logic controller (“PLC”) and instruction set library. The instruction set library in the PLC can be updated without downtime of the PLC or the machines controlled by the PLC. The instruction set library is decoupled from the PLC firmware and bound via an API so that instructions in the executable code are bound to the firmware such that updates to the instruction set library can happen between scans of the executable without requiring the firmware be updated. Further, the instruction set library may be partitioned to limit updates and the amount of the complete instruction set library that is stored on the PLC to only those used by the PLC.