Memory configuration, address interleaving, relocation and access

Abstract

A storage configuration table (BCA) has a plurality of register entries which are loaded with signals that assign absolute addresses to the physical locations in a computer system's main storage, which may have plural basic storage modules (BSMs). Each BCA entry contains plural fields which relate a range of absolute addresses to a BSM section, including (1) a port select field which assigns a BSM port, (2) a BSM select field which assigns one of plural BSMs connected to the port, (3) a BSM section modified field to change the BSM section assigned to the range of absolute addresses, and (4) a restricted system area (SA) range select field that can assign a SA to a respective BSM section, and specify the SA size. Each processor may restrict SA accesses to microprogram controlled storage operations under control of an authorization field in a storage request. The SA can flexibly be located in any one or more BSMs. A processor storage request provides selected fields to a BCA indexing circuit to locate the BCA entry which will indicate the assignment of physical storage to the absolute address of the request. The BCA indexing circuit includes an interleavemode trigger which selects among plural fields in the request address in order to control BSM switching in a continuous absolute address sequence of requests. The two trigger settings control interleaved switching of BSM sections whenever requests address a different one megabyte BSM section, or a different two kilobyte storage block.