1. A safety controller for controlling an automated installation in accordance with a user program, the safety controller comprising: a plurality of control components, wherein at least some of the control components have a data bus interface, with the data bus interface being designed to receive and to send data, a data bus connecting the plurality of control components via said data bus interfaces for the purpose of interchanging data, a programming tool for generating the user program, and a configuration interface designed to receive configuration data, wherein the configuration data determine at least one characteristic of at least one data bus interface in order to configure communication relationships among the plurality of control components, wherein said configuration data is ascertained on the basis of association data generated by the programming tool, wherein the use program comprises a plurality of individual control instructions which comprise a plurality of data-producing control instructions and a plurality of data-consuming control instructions, wherein the association data define, for at least some of the individual control instructions, a processing order for the individual control instructions, and wherein the configuration data comprise termination cycle time data representing a termination cycle time, said termination cycle time defining a time basis having equidistantly spaced time intervals at which data produced by the data-producing control instructions need to be present for the plurality of data-consuming control instructions.