The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jan. 31, 1978
Filed:
Feb. 16, 1977
Gerald John Owens, Freehold Township, Monmouth County, NJ (US);
Bell Telephone Laboratories, Incorporated, Murray Hill, NJ (US);
Abstract
A telephone multiline inquiry voice answer system is realized by employing a minicomputer system. Predetermined voice signals are digitally encoded and stand in a disk memory. In response to requests from one or more of the telephone lines the computer central processor determines which digital words are required from the disk to form a desired response message. The digital words are read from the disk to word buffers in dedicated storage stages in one or more storage units in a random access memory. Each storage unit is assigned to a 'fixed' number of output lines while each storage stage is assigned to a particular output line. A direct memory access output multiplexer is employed to read the digital words from loaded word buffers in the storage stages to corresponding output lines without substantial processor control. To this end, the multiplexer includes output modules in conjunction with a common control module to effect the desired transfer. Each output module monitors address signals transmitted in the computer system when digital words are transferred from the disk memory to the word buffers in a particular storage unit to detect which ones of the storage stages include buffers that have been loaded with digital words. Then control signals are generated by the multiplexer which are employed to effect reading the digital words from the buffers in a prescribed sequence of read intervals to corresponding requesting lines without programmed intervention of the processor. Efficiency of the multiplexer is enhanced by employing multiple word transfers during each read interval which may vary in number from interval to interval in reading the digital words from loaded ones of the buffers in the random access memory storage stages to the requesting lines in the prescribed sequence of read intervals.