A data processing device (100) characterizes behavior properties of equipment under observation (105). The device (100) has a plurality of processing units that are adapted to process input values (a) to output values (e) according to numerical transfer functions. The functions implement an input-to-output mapping specified by a configuration (C) that is obtained by pre-processing historic data (114) from a plurality of master equipment (104). The configuration is related to the behavior properties of the equipment (105) so that some of the output values (e) represent the behavior properties of the equipment (105) under observation.