Xerox Corporation

Perry A Caro

Donald R Woods

Kevin J Mackey

James G Sandman, Jr

Gary R Steinbach

Marian H Beard

Jennifer B Hsiao

Geoffrey O Thompson

Everett T Neely

Gaya Vukkadala

Jeffery W Lee

Charles R Fay

Joseph H Binkley

John Bradly Dillon

William C Lynch

Jonathan J Gibbons

Michael L Tallan

Abdo G Kadifa

Clayton W Mock

John D Wick

Hilary N Hooks

A multiprocessor system comprises concurrent display of video data reflecting the operation of two processors in discrete portions of a single display screen with a user interface adapted for interaction with both processors. One processor controls the entire display while allocating a portion of the display screen for the use of the other processor which processor emulates a target processor system, for example, the IBM PC. A user interface is represented on the display screen in the form of metaphoric objects, called icons, with which the user can interact by changing the input focus to a designated object by visually pointed to it via the input means, which thereafter permits manipulation of the designated object of interaction with data input/output relative to the designated object. This input means is also used to initially change the input focus to either the allocated emulating processor screen portion or to the remaining portion of the central processor display screen prior to interaction with the metaphoric objects in a selected screen portion, the change of the input focus causing subsequent user input via the input means to be directed to the selected screen portion until interrupted by a change in focus input to the other of the screen portions by the user via the input means. An icon may be a representation of a virtual object, such as a virtual floppy disk, that is accessible in either the host system world or in the emulating processor world even though the virtual floppy disk may have a filing system alien to the host system world. Facilities are also provided to permit transferring of displayed data reflecting the operation of one processor to the control of the other processor in response to user inputs selecting the data to be transferred and indicating the destination of the selected data on the display. More specifically, if data from each processor is displayed in a discrete portion of the display screen, the user may select data in one processor's controlled screen portion and transfer it to the other processor's controlled screen region, and vice versa.

Concurrent display of data from two different processors each having

An emulating data processor includes a host system and an emulating processor with outputs to and inputs from the host system. The emulating processor executes sequences of instructions executable by a PC being emulated, but a host processor independently executes sequences of its instructions which are different from PC instructions. Circuitry monitors the emulating processor outputs and provides information to the host system so that it can emulate the environment of the PC CPU, emulating both memory and I/O devices. The memory accesses of the emulating processor are mapped into the host system memory, so that the host processor is protected from defective PC software on the emulating processor. The display updates of the emulating processor are detected and provide information for the host processor in updating a part of its display which provides the information a PC display would provide simultaneously with the display characteristic of the host system. An input/output processor handles I/O operation requests of the emulating processor, using the host system I/O devices to emulate some of the PC I/O devices. Output operations to the printer may go either to a local printer or to a file for subsequent printing, so a buffer which can be unloaded to either destination emulates the PC printer. Floppy operations may be handled either by a floppy disk controller like that of the PC or by a software controller of a file in host rigid disk memory which may be accessed as a PC floppy disk, so that a data structure containing parameters of the operation is loaded and provided to the appropriate controller. Rigid disk operations are handled by another file in host rigid disk memory which may be accessed as a PC rigid disk, and an appropriate I/O operating system routine is provided so that the emulating processor can pass the operation parameters through to the host rigid disk controller in a group of registers. Keyboard input operations may come either from the host keyboard or directly from a data structure managed by the host processor, in each case converted to PC codes, and another buffer which can be loaded from either source emulates the PC keyboard. The host system emulates the environment of the emulating processor while emulating the user interface of the PC.

Data processing system emulation in a window with a coprocessor and I/O

An emulating data processor includes a host sytem and an emulating processor with outputs to and inputs from the host system. An input/output processor handles I/O operation requests of the emulating processor, using the host system I/O devices to emulate some of the PC I/O devices. Floppy operations may be handled either by a floppy disk controller like that of the PC or by a software controller of a file in host rigid disk memory which may be accessed as a PC floppy disk, so that a data structure containing parameters of the operation is loaded and provided to the appropriate controller. Rigid disk operations are handled by another file in host rigid disk memory which may be accessed as a PC rigid disk, and an appropriate I/O operating system routine is provided so that the emulating processor can pass the operation parameters through to the host rigid disk controller in a group of registers.

System for managing data which is accessible by file address or disk

A user interface is represented on the display screen in the form of metaphoric objects, called icons, with which the user can interact by changing the input focus to a designated object by visually pointed to it via the input means, which thereafter permits manipulation of the designated object or interaction with data input/output relative to the designated object. This input means is also used to initially change the input focus to either the allocated emulating processor screen portion or to the remaining portion of the central processor display screen prior to interaction with the metaphoric objects in a selected screen portion, the change of the input focus causing subsequent user input via the input means to be directed to the selected screen portion until interrupted by a change in focus input to the other of the screen portions by the user via the input means. An icon may be a representation of a virtual object, such as a virtual floppy disk, that is accessible in either the host system world or in the emulating processor world even though the virtual floppy disk may have a filing system alien to the host system world.

Virtual and emulated objects for use in the user interface of a display

A multiprocessor system comprises concurrent display of video data reflecting the operation of two processors in discrete portions of a single display screen with a user interface adapted for interaction with both processors. One processor controls the entire display while allocating a portion of the display screen for the use of the other processor which processor emulates a target processor system, for example, the IBM PC. To fully emulate another target processor system requires emulation of its screen facility and abstractions used in the display operations of the targeted system. The one processor is a general purpose host computer system having a central processor with real resources including I/O devices, main memory, a video display for displaying information on the display screen of the display and user input means, e.g. a keyboard and a mouse, to the host computer to provide input to the display screen. Also included in the system is at least one emulating computer having a processor emulating the target processor unit with interface means for emulating the previously identified real resources for the emulating processor including means in the host system responsive to the input/output of the emulating processor for sharing of the central processor real resources by the emulating processor.

Concurrent display of data from two different display processors and

An emulating data processor includes a host system and an emulating processor with outputs to and inputs from the host system. The emulating processor executes sequences of instructions executable by a PC being emulated, but a host processor independently executes sequences of its instructions which are different from PC instructions. Circuitry monitors the emulating processor outputs and provides information to the host system so that it can emulate the environment of the PC CPU, emulating both memory and I/O devices. The memory accesses of the emulating processor are mapped into the host system memory, so that the host processor is protected from defective PC software on the emulating processor. The display updates of the emulating processor are detected and provide information for the host processor in updating a part of its display which provides the information a PC display would provide simultaneously with the display characteristic of the host system. An input/output processor handles I/O operation requests of the emulating processor, using the host system I/O devices to emulate some of the PC I/O devices. The host system emulates the environment of the emulating processor while emulating the user interface of the PC.

Emulation with display update trapping

A multiprocessor system comprises concurrent display of video data reflecting the operation of two processors in discrete portions of a single display screen with a user interface adapted for interaction with both processors. One processor controls the entire display while allocating a portion of the display screen for the use of the other processor which processor emulates a target processor system, for example, the IBM PC. A user interface is represented on the display screen in the form of metaphoric objects, called icons, with which the user can interact by changing the input focus to a designated object by visually pointed to it via the input means, which thereafter permits manipulation of the designated object or interaction with data input/output relative to the designated object. This input means is also used to initially change the input focus to either the allocated emulating processor screen portion or to the remaining portion of the central processor display screen prior to interaction with the metaphoric objects in a selected screen portion, the change of the input focus causing subsequent user input via the input means to be directed to the selected screen portion until interrupted by a change in focus input to the other of the screen portions by the user via the input means. An icon may be a representation of a virtual object, such as a virtual floppy disk, that is accessible in either the host system world or in the emulating processor world even through the virtual floppy disk may have a filing system alien to the host system world.

Data processor having a user interface display with metaphoric objects

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Palo Alto, CA, United States of America

Perry A Caro