Start-up method for numerical controllers of machine tools or production machines

The method involves addressing a slave computer (20) of a numeric controller by a central computer (10) using a logical address that is assigned to a hardware address with information about a physical addressing of one of the slave computers by a data transmission network (30). The central computer requests allocation information between the logical and hardware addresses for the slave computers sequentially in a controlled operating mode, where the logical address is not assigned to the hardware address by an operator and the information is stored in a storage unit (13) after the allocation. An independent claim is also included for a numeric controller for a machine tool or a production machine.