Alpex Computer Corporation

Lawrence Martin Haskel

Wallace Kirschner

A data access system comprises a plurality of intelligent terminals capable of selectively receiving data from a data bank by means of barge-in telephone lines. Each terminal includes a basic terminal into which application modules and device control modules may be plugged. The application modules contain programs enabling the computer to perform specified functions in conjunction with certain stored subroutines within the basic terminal. A device control module enables communication by telephone with the data bank. A terminal subscribes to the data bank by transferring selectively subscription data to memory within the terminal. In one embodiment, subscription data identifying by serial numbers the terminals which are to become subscribers is circulated on subscription barge-in telephone lines. If a terminal calls a subscription line on which there appears the serial number for that terminal, the subscription data for that terminal is permanently stored within the application module of the terminal. The text data to which the terminal has subscribed is retrieved from the data bank by calling a barge-in telephone line (on which such data is circulated) if the stored subscription data shows that the subscription is in effect.

Data access system wherein subscriber terminals gain access to a data

Keyboard-controlled apparatus for producing video signals for standard television receivers includes a random access memory having a multiplicity of storage positions each of which corresponds to a preselected discrete portion of the TV raster. Data stored in the random access memory is sequentially read from memory in synchronism with the scanning of the television receiver so that a desired video signal is generated at each discrete position of the cathode ray beam. Data is read into the random access memory at preselected storage positions depending upon a particular image to be displayed. The data writing process is under the control of a micro-processor which is programmed to cause the stored image data to be varied in accordance with the condition of the user-controlled keyboard.

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Danbury, CT, United States of America

Lawrence Martin Haskel