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:
Feb. 11, 1997
Filed:
Apr. 22, 1994
Steven J Churchill, Danbury, CT (US);
Edward P Daniels, Jr, Trumbull, CT (US);
Raymond J Kerney, Brookfield, CT (US);
Pitney Bowes Inc., Stamford, CT (US);
Abstract
A software architecture system is provided for real-time control of an inserting system having a central processor coupled to a plurality of distributed processors that are associated with physical modules of the inserting system, wherein the central processor is coupled to the distributed processors by at least one type of physical I/O channel. The system includes real-time control routines resident in the central processor, a plurality of virtual stations resident in the central processor, wherein each of the software stations corresponding to one of the physical modules of the inserting system. The system further includes at least one virtual I/O channel corresponding to each type of the physical I/O channel, the virtual I/O channel being resident in the central processor and operatively coupled to the physical I/O channel, and a message dispatcher resident in the central processor for dispatching messages from the virtual stations to the corresponding physical modules through the virtual I/O channel. The virtual I/O channel includes a multi-layered communication interface between the physical and the virtual stations, which includes an application interface layer that is independent of the type of physical I/O channel and a physical layer that is changes according to the type of physical I/O channel.