1. A universal motion controller that functionally combines the classical tasks of a programmable logic controller and a numerical controller, comprising a consistent run-level model that has several run levels of various types with different priorities, and wherein the following run levels are provided, from greatest to lowest priority: a) a position-control level, comprising associated clocked system level and user level, b) an interpolator level, comprising associated clocked system level and user level, c) an event system level for events requiring a response, d) a user level for asynchronous errors, e) an additional user-configurable user level (FA) according to user requirements, for alarm and/or event and/or control and/or other periodic tasks (T 1 -T 4 ), f) a level group for background processing, formed from a set of motion sequences (BS 1 -BS 3 ), free cycles (FZ) and other low-priority system tasks (ST), wherein the run levels a to e form a level group for real-time processing.