Apparatus and method for controlling and/or regulating of a technical installation

The device has a computer unit (3) that performs the required computations for controlling and/or regulating using application data and actuates corresp. control outputs. An internal working memory (4) connected to the computer unit via an internal communications channel (9) stores data in a volatile manner. An external memory (1) connected to the computer unit via an external communications channel (8) encodes at least some of the application data used and contains it in non-volatile manner. The computer unit reads data from the external memory on starting the device, decodes the data using a decoding code, places it in working memory and accesses the data in working memory for further operations.