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Convex Computer Corporation

Arthur T Kimmel

James R Weatherford

Steven Jeffrey Wallach

Thomas M Jones

Harold Wallace Dozier

John W Clark

Alan D Gant

David A Nobles

Gary Belgrave Gostin

David M Chastain

James E Mankovich

Michael C Harris

Edward D Geist

Jeffrey H Gruger

Robert B Kolstad

William H Wallace

Gregory G Schober

Steven M Rowan

Trenton A Ames

Kent A Fuka

Frank J Marshall

David B Matthews

Gilbert J Hansen

John M Golenbieski

Gaynel J Lockhart

Gerald Matulka

Harold D Shelton

Michael E Sydow

Larry W Spry

An interlock for a disk drive unit having a handle and a camming arrangement responsive to pivotal movements for inserting and withdrawing the unit from a housing fixture. A solenoid is actuable to lock the handle when the unit is fully inserted. A sensor is adapted for sensing an interlock engagement between the solenoid armature and the handle. For removing the disk drive unit, a delay is interposed before retracting the solenoid armature to assure that the disk drive unit is fully stopped before the handle can be rotated for removal of the unit.

Disk drive insertion and removal interlock

A physical cache unit (100) is used within a computer (20). The computer (20) further includes a main memory (99) a memory control unit (22), inputs/output processors (54, 68) and a central processor (156). The central processor includes an address translation unit (118), an instruction processing unit (126), an address scalar unit (142), a vector control unit (144) and vector processing units (148, 150). The physical cache unit (100) stores operands in a data cache (180), the operands for delivery to and receipt from the control processor (156). Addresses for requested operands are received from the central processor (156) and are examined concurrently during one clock cycle in tag stores (190 and 192). The tag stores (190 and 192) produce tags which are compared in comparators (198 and 200) to the tag of physical addresses received from the central processor (156). If a comparison is made, a hit, both of the requested operands are read, during one clock period, from the data cache (180) and transmitted to the central processor (156). If the requested operands are not in the data cache (180) they are fetched from the main memory (99). The operands requested from the main memory (99) within a block are placed in a buffer (188) and/or transmitted directly through a bypass bus (179) to the central processor (156). Concurrently, the block of operands fetched from main memory (99) may be stored in the data cache (180) for subsequent delivery to the central processor (156) upon request. Further, a block of operands from the central processor (156) can be transmitted directly to the memory control unit 22 and bypass the data cache (180).

Cache store bypass for computer

The computer (10) includes a memory control unit (12), a central processing unit (14) and a memory array unit (16). A plurality of memory array planes (36, 38, 40 and 42) are included within the memory array unit (16). A latch (82) receives write data from the memory control unit (12) through a bus (26). Address and control information is transferred from the memory control unit (12) to timing and address circuits (28, 30, 32, 34). The write data is transferred from the latch (82) into a selected one of the memory array planes (36, 38, 40, 42). For each of the memory array planes (36, 38, 40, 42) there is provided a respective read latch (60, 62, 64, 66) for receiving read data. The ouputs of the memory array planes are not connected in common. The ouputs to read latches (60, 62, 64,66) are connected in common through a bus (76) for transferring read data through the data bus (26) back to the memory control unit (12). The memory array unit (16) provides enhanced speed of operation for the computer (10) while permitting refresh interrupts to occur without loss of read or write data.

Memory array unit for computer

A communication bus (14) provides bidirectional data communication between a computer (12) and various peripheral units including input/output processors (18, 20) and a service processor (22). The computer includes a memory control unit (24) which is connected to a memory array (26). A central processor unit (30) is connected for data exchange with the memory control unit (24). Data blocks are transferred through the bus (14) and either originate or terminate at the memory array (26). A peripheral unit, such as the processor (18) transfers a data block by first transferring a header parcel (146) which defines an address, block length and type of function. This is transmitted to the memory control unit (24) which carries out the desired data transfer by sending or receiving sequential data parcels. An interrupt bus (16) connects each of the units of the computer system (10) including the processors (18, 20, 22) and the central processing unit (30). Any one of the units connected to the interrupt bus ( 16) can interrupt any of the other units. The interrupt process comprises sending an interrupt vector through interrupt lines (66). At the receiving unit the interrupt is identified and the appropriate function carried out. The combination of the communication bus and the interrupt bus (16) comprises an input/output bus for the computer system (10) to provide a high data bandwidth together with flexible operation.

Input/output bus for system which generates a new header parcel when an

A memory array unit (20) is used within a main memory (26) of a computer system (10). The memory (26) comprises a plurality of memory array units (20, 22, 24) and each of the memory array units (20, 22, 24) has an allocated address range of 0 to 16 megabytes. However, the memory array unit (20) has a capacity of only four megabytes. The usable address range is 0 to 2 megabytes and 8 to 10 megabytes. The remainder of the address range is a null. Upon development of an increased memory array unit (20) having a greater capacity, such as 16 megabytes, the new memory array unit (20) is directly substituted for the previous low capacity memory array unit. The new memory array unit (20) has a fully implemented address range from 0 to 16 megabytes. The low and high capacity memory array units can be intermixed or the low capacity units can be entirely replaced by the high capacity units without the need for modifying any of the computer system (10) or for modifying the system software.

Intermixing of different capacity memory array units in a computer

An auxiliary connector circuit is used within an electronic system (10) which comprises a plurality of removable circuit cards (14, 16, 18, 20, 22, 24, 26) which are mounted within a cabinet (12). Before the circuit card (16) is removed from the cabinet (12), a power cable (44) is connected by means of engaging a plug (46) to a socket (34). When this occurs a DATA OUT ENABLE signal at a line (65) drives three-state devices (86, 88, 90, 92, 94, 96, 98 and 100) to a high impedance state to isolate a memory array (78) from a data bus (102). This high impedance prevents any transients from being transmitted through the data bus (102) when the card (16) is removed from the cabinet (12). After the card (16) is removed from the cabinet (12), the power cable (44) can be disconnected from the card (16) or the card (16) can be tested to evaluate the components mounted on the card (16).

Auxiliary power connector and communication channel control circuit

A read/modify/write circuit (10) for a computer is used in conjunction with a main memory (12) in which block operations are executed using a plurality of data units. The circuit (10) includes a first register connected to receive a data block from the main memory (12), a second register connected to receive data units from a requestor, such as a processor (18) and a third register in which a resulting data block is produced which comprises the data units to be written into the main memory (12) and the remaining data units which were previously in the block read from memory (12). Multiplex circuits (70, 72, 74, 76, 78, 80, 82 and 84) are commanded by a decoder (136) in response to the processor (18) to selectively route sections of registers (26 and 28) into a register (106). The resulting data block is then transferred through the memory bus (14) for writing into the main memory (12). The outputs of the multiplexors (70-84) can be driven by the decoder (136) to a predetermined logic state so that a selected data block can be written into the main memory (12) for test and evaluation purposes.

Read/modify/write circuit for computer memory operation

Physical cache unit for computer

A vector processing computer is configured to operate in a pipelined fashion wherein each of the functional units is essentially independent and is designed to carry out its operational function in the fastest possible manner. Vector elements are transmitted from memory, either main memory, a physical cache unit or a logical cache through a source bus where the elements are alternately loaded into the vector processing units. The vector control unit decodes the vector instructions and generates the required control commands for operating the registers and logical units within the vector processing units. Thus, the vector processing units essentially work in parallel to double the processing rate. The resulting vectors are transmitted through a destination bus to either the physical cache unit, the main memory, the logical cache or to an input/output processor. In a further aspect of the computer there is produced an entry microword from a store for the immediate execution of the first microinstruction within a sequence of microinstructions. The remaining microinstructions are produced from a conventional store. This reduces the delay in the retrieval and execution of the first microinstruction. In a still further aspect of the computer there is included the logical data cache which stores data at logical addresses such that the central processor can store and retrieve data without the necessity of first making a translation from logical to physical address.

Computer system

Growing community of inventors

Dallas, TX, United States of America

Arthur T Kimmel