Boots – shoes – and leggings
Patent
1991-07-02
1994-08-30
Dixon, Joseph L.
Boots, shoes, and leggings
364DIG1, 3642516, 3642542, 3642549, G06F 1202
Patent
active
053435591
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The present invention relates to a digital computer.
Conventional digital computers are based on a design attributed to John Von Neumann, which in turn had its foundations in the mathematics of Alan Turing. This design is characterised by a Central Processing Unit (CPU) reading and writing information from and to a Random Access Memory (RAM) and communicating with a number of Input and Output Peripheral Devices (I/O) , in order to provide its computing activity.
The RAM memory in a conventional Von Neumann computer consists of an array of storage locations into which can be placed electronic representations of items of information. This information has two forms, referred to as instructions and data. Instructions are encoded items of information which tell the CPU which operations to perform. Data are different items upon which the CPU performs its operations. The CPU obtains and executes a succession of instructions which it reads from the RAM in a sequential manner. This sequence of instructions is called the Computer Program. During execution of the instructions that form a program, data is read and written from and to the RAM and from and to the I/O devices by the CPU. The size and scope of programs that can be processed by a CPU can be very large, even for a CPU with only a limited repertoire of instructions. This is because the sequence of instructions that make up a program is limited only by the ingenuity of the person who creates the program (the Programmer), and the number of instruction and data items that can be accommodated in the RAM.
The essential characteristic of RAM memory is the presentation of an absolute address to the RAM, the absolute address identifying a single memory location or cell in which instructions or data are stored. When an absolute address is presented to RAM, the data or instructions stored at that location are read out (usually to the CPU).
Both the address and the data or instructions are represented in a binary form in the digital computer. Typically the data comprises 4, 8, 16 or 32 bits, but essentially any number of bits could be used. From a practical point of view all RAM data and instructions are of the same fixed number of bits because the CPU contains registers of binary lengths that are intimately related to the RAM data and instructions being accessed by the CPU. In particular the fixed length of the CPU's address register (which is used to address the RAM) limits the number of RAM locations that can be accessed directly by the CPU. For example, a 16 bit address register can directly access up to 65,526 separate RAM locations.
The binary value contained in the CPU's address register is conducted to the RAM via a set of conductors called the address bus. All Von Neumann computers require this address bus and are subject to the address range limitations imposed by its fixed size.
An alternative form of memory is known as Content Addressable Memory (CAM). CAM memory relies upon an alternative strategy to the storage and retrieval of data, and can be considered as an inverse of random access memory. The essential characteristic of CAM memory is that the memory is presented with an item of data and the address at which the item is found is returned. (In practice the returned item is usually some logical manipulation of this physical address.) The range limitations referred to above still apply however. It should be noted that CAM storage is sometimes also referred to as associative storage, although the term "associative" is used in a different sense hereinafter.
Various elaborations of the above approaches to the storage and retrieval of data have been proposed. For example, it is known to store in one memory location an instruction to jump to another location at which a further required instruction or datum is stored. The jump instruction is in terms of "go to the location which is a specified number different from the absolute address of the current location". This location cannot be truly described as a "relative" address as, although it identifies the next
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Dixon Joseph L.
Microcomputer Technical Services Limited
Nguyen Hiep T.
LandOfFree
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