Wang Laboratories, Inc.

Data General Corporation

Richard W Coyle

Zenja Chao

Thomas B Berg

Michael L Ziegler

James Marriot Guyer

Robert D Becker

Michael B Druke

Martin J Schwartz

Kenneth D Holberger

Charles J Holland

Steven Wallach

Kevin H Curcuru

Carl J Alsing

Edward J Rasala

Richard F Giunta

Thomas West

An information processing system comprises a high speed noninterlocked system bus 12 which couples together a plurality of system units including a main memory and a system bus interface (SBI) unit 34. The system bus interface unit is further coupled to an I/O bus 42 having a plurality of I/O Processors 44, 46 coupled thereto. The system bus interface includes read and write buffer storage for buffering information units being transferred between the system bus and the I/O bus. The I/O bus includes two signal lines which differentiate the condition of an I/O bus SBI BUSY signal line. One of these two signal lines indicates when the SBI read buffer is full while the other signal line indicates when the SBI write buffer is full. The SBI Busy signal line indicates when either of these conditions exist. I/O processors are enabled to differentiate between read and write buffer full conditions, thereby effectively increasing the bandwidth of the I/O bus.

I/O bus to system interface

An information processing system comprises a high speed noninterlocked system bus 12 which couples together a plurality of system units including a main memory and a system bus interface (SBI) unit 34. The system bus interface unit is further coupled to an I/O bus 42 having a plurallity of I/O Processors 44, 46 coupled thereto. The system bus interface includes read and write buffer storage for buffering information units being transferred between the system bus and the I/O bus. The I/O bus includes two signal lines which differentiate the condition of an I/O bus SBI BUSY signal line. One of these two signal lines indicates when the SBI read buffer is full while the other signal line indicates when the SBI write buffer is full. The SBI Busy signal line indicates when either of these conditions exist. I/O processors are enabled to differentiate between read and write buffer full conditions, thereby effectively increasing the bandwidth of the I/O bus.

Interface controller with first and second buffer storage area for

A system console 30 is enabled to read registers from memory boards 12 and 14 and to set registers within the memory boards which control the disabling of one or more memory arrays 16-22. The information read from the memory boards is indicative at least of which of the memory arrays has malfunctioned. The registers are within a memory logic array 40, one of which is disposed upon each of the memory boards 12 and 14 and also upon a memory controlling unit 26, the memory logic arrays being coupled together by a bit serial scan bus 42. In a preferred embodiment of the invention the memory logic arrays 40 are comprised of a highly integrated gate array semiconductor device, each of which is identical. Each memory logic array is provided with a base address input from a preceding memory logic array and computes a base address for a subsequent memory logic array. A memory logic array which has a portion of an associated memory disabled automatically determines a revised base address for the subsequent memory logic array, thereby initiating the automatic reallocation of memory board base addresses of all subsequent memory boards.

Memory diagnostic apparatus and method

A data processing system which handles thirty-two bit logical addresses which can be derived from either sixteen bit logical addresses or thirty-two bit logical addresses, the latter being translated into physical addresses by unique translation means. The system includes means for decoding macro-instructions of both a basic and an extended instruction set, each macro-instruction containing in itself selected bit patterns which uniquely identify which type of instruction is to be decoded. The decoded macro-instructions provide the starting address of one or more micro-instructions, which address is supplied to a unique micro-instruction sequencing unit which appropriately decodes a selected field of each micro-instruction to obtain each successive micro-instruction. The system uses hierarchical memory storage using eight storage segments (rings), access to the rings being controlled in a privileged manner according to different levels of privilege. The memory system uses a bank of main memory modules which interface with the central processor system via a dual port cache memory, block data transfers between the main memory and the cache memory being controlled by a bank controller unit.

Data processing system

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Dunstable, MA, United States of America

Richard W Coyle