Boots – shoes – and leggings
Patent
1984-03-16
1987-05-19
Williams, Jr., Archie E.
Boots, shoes, and leggings
365189, 364727, G06F 1200, G06F 1206
Patent
active
046673083
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a memory arrangement for data storage and retrieval, that permits words (n bits of information) to be accessed (stored or retrieved) in a variety of different modes.
2. Description of Related Art
Conventiotally, data is stored in digital integrated circuits as contiguous words, each word having a single unique address. In certain applications it is required to access data from common bit locations of different, but regularly spaced words (e.g. the 5th bit of every 16th word). Normally this would be achieved by a masking operation carried out by a processor connected to the memory, but this is highly inefficient in terms of data retrieval, since it requires `n` memory accesses to read (or write) n bits of data, together with the necessary address generation and masking operations to be carried out by the attached processor.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of this invention to provide a data storage/retrieval system in which this inefficiency is at least partly overcome, and in the preferred, general, case, to provide that `n` bits of data can be accessed simultaneously from the rth bit location of a selected set of n words, spaced by n.sup.m-1 (where the mode "m" is greater than or equal to `0`. When m=0, words are accessed in the conventional manner). Thus, in the three dimensional case, data can be thought of as being arranged in cubic n.times.n.times.n data arrays, such that any row (x word, mode=0) or any column (y word, mode=1) or any z word (mode=2), may be addressed in the normal manner, together with a mode instruction, (there being n.sup.2 x words, n.sup.2 y words and n.sup.2 z words in each such cube).
According to the present invention, a data memory arrangement includes a square array of storage elements arranged in rows and columns, each column being addressable one storage element at a time, means for storing data in the memory arrangement so that data bits of originally the same bit position in respective row data words are stored exclusively in different columns, and means for accessing simultaneously the bits of a selected data word distributed over the columns of the array.
The arrangement preferably comprises a plurality of square arrays, corresponding columns of which are addressable as single columns, one storage element at a time, and means for addressing simultaneously a selected storage element in each such column in a plurality of modes such that the accessed data word comprises an original row data word, an original column data word of adjacent data bits or a data word comprising periodically spaced data bits of an original column.
There may be included rotation means effective on storage of an array of data bits in a square array to displace the row data words with respect to their bit positions progressively and cyclically from each row to the next.
Where such a memory arrangement comprises n storage elements in each row and n.sup.d-1 storage elements in each column, d being a dimension integer greater than two, within each block of n adjacent square arrays the rotation means may be arranged to displace the whole of the data to be stored in each square array by one row bit position progressively from each square array to the next to provide a third dimension access to data words the bits of which lay in corresponding locations in successive square arrays of the original data array.
The rotation means may be arranged to displace the whole of the data to be stored in each sub-array of n.sup.m storage elements, where 3<m<d, by one row bit position progressively from each such sub-array to the next to provide (m+1)th dimension access to data words the bits of which lay in corresponding locations in successive said sub-arrays of the original data array.
In an alternative embodiment there may be included multiplexing means effective on storage of an array of data bits of word length n, where n is a power of 2, in a square array of n.sup.2 storage elements, to rearrange the bit positions o
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C. D. Coleman et al, Bank of Memories System for Multiword Access, IBM Technical Disclosure Bulletin, vol. 9, No. 9, Feb. 1967.
A. Weinberger, Multiword Multidirectional Random Access Memory System, IBM Technical Disclosure Bulletin, vol. 10, No. 7, Dec. 1967.
Hayes David
Rix Francis E.
Marconi Avionics Limited
Williams Jr. Archie E.
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