Self-managing variable field storage system for handling nested data

Abstract

This disclosure relates to a storage system employing a serial periodic memory as the storage mechanism. The storage mechanism has one or more control and access ports which control data transmission to and from the storage mechanism, each port including input and output devices associated with a data track of the storage mechanism. A queue shift register is coupled between the input and output devices to receive previously stored information characters which are to be temporarily held when newly received information characters are to be written into the storage media. Control of the system resides in the control ports and is activated by commands from the external sources. A character set is employed which includes a beginning delimiter character and an ending delimiter character such that information segments may be of any length up to the capacity of the storage mechanism. The system control ports manage, among other things, the explicit representation of the beginning and end of strings of data and the decomposition of strings into substrings, the automatic allocation and reclamation of unused storage space as strings of data increase or decrease in size, and the permission or prohibition of access to data strings depending on the requestor's identity. Data strings may be accessed according to their order or by symbolic addressing.