Digital data processing system having a uniquely organized memory system and means for storing and accessing information therein

• US 4,656,579 A
• Filed: 02/08/1985
• Issued: 04/07/1987
• Est. Priority Date: 05/22/1981
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: EMC Corporation (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Data General Corp. (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Inventors: Katz, Lawrence H., Mundie, Craig J., Bernstein, David H., Wallach, Steven J., Jones, Thomas M., Richmond, Michael S., Schleimer, Stephen I., Gavrin, Edward S., Pilat, John F., Bachman, Brett L., Bratt, Richard G., Clancy, Gerald F., Wallach, Walter A. Jr., Gruner, Ronald H.
• Primary Examiner(s): Shaw, Gareth D.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Dorsey, Daniel K.
• Application Number:
  US06/699,240
• Time in Patent Office: 788 Days
• Field of Search: 364/200, 364/900
• US Class Current: 711/147
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 31/318505 Test of Modular systems, e.g. Wafers, MCM's
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/073 in a memory management context, e.g. virtual memory or cache management memory management G06F12/00; testing of static memory units G11C29/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0793 Remedial or corrective actions recovery from an exception in an instruction pipeline G06F9/3861; by retry G06F11/1402; for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity H04L69/40
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/0292 using tables or multilevel address translation means G06F12/023 takes precedence; address translation in virtual memory systems G06F12/10
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/0875 with dedicated cache, e.g. instruction or stack
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/10 Address translation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/1458 by checking the subject access rights
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/1483 using an access-table, e.g. matrix or list
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 7/00 Methods or arrangements for processing data by operating upon the order or content of the data handled logic circuits H03K19/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 7/483 Computations with numbers represented by a non-linear combination of denominational numbers, e.g. rational numbers, logarithmic number system or floating-point numbers G06F7/4806, G06F7/4824, G06F7/49, G06F7/491, G06F7/544 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 7/49905 Exception handling
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 7/4991 Overflow or underflow
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 7/49926 Division by zero
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/30192 according to data descriptor, e.g. dynamic data typing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4486 Formation of subprogram jump address
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4488 Object-oriented
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/468 Specific access rights for resources, e.g. using capability register
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4843 by program, e.g. task dispatcher, supervisor, operating system
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/54 Interprogram communication

Abstract

A digital computer system having a memory system organized into objects for storing items of information and a processor for processing data in response to instructions. An object identifier code is associated with each object. The objects include procedure objects and data objects. The procedure objects contain procedures including the instructions and name tables associated with the procedures. The instructions contain operation codes and names representing data. Each name corresponds to a name table entry in the name table associated with the procedure. The name table for a name contains information from which the processor may determine the location and the format for the data (e.g., an operand) represented by the name.

Claims

1. A digital data processing system comprising:

universal memory means for storing and providing items of data, said data items including names representing other data items, said universal memory means including name tables containing name table entries corresponding to said names, each name table entry comprising data containing information for providing a logical address of data items represented by said names, said universal memory means including

memory organization means for organizing said universal memory means into objects permanently identified by unique identifiers, each said data item being contained in an object and being addressable by a logical address comprising data specifying the unique identifier identifying said object and the location of said data item in said identified object;

said objects including data objects containing data and procedure objects containing at least instructors and names;

processor means connected to said universal memory means for processing said data items, said processor means including

name interpretation means for providing logical addresses of data items to be processed by said processor means, said name interpretation means comprising;

means for accessing a name from said memory means;

means responsive to said accessed name for providing the name table entry corresponding to said accessed name;

means responsive to said name table entry for resolving the data in said name table entry, said resolution thereby providing the logical address of the data item represented by the name accessed from said memory means; and

further wherein said processor means and said memory means further comprise;

stack means responsive to certain of said instructions for storing information relating to the current state of execution of said instructions.

2. The digital computer system of claim 1, wherein said first unique identifier code fields comprise a group number sub-field and a selectable serial number sub-field, at least one said group number being uniquely and permanently assigned to said digital computer system.

3. The digital computer system of claim 2, wherein said group number sub-field and said serial number sub-field together contain 32 bits of binary information.

4. The digital data processing system of claim 3, wherein said means for generating said first unique identifier code fields includes means for obtaining said group number sub-fields and said serial number sub-fields from said memory means and for providing said group number sub-fields and said serial number sub-fields to said combining means.

5. The digital data processing system of claim 1, wherein said second unique identifier code fields, comprise an architectural clock field containing binary information representing an elapsed time interval from a selected initial time.

6. The digital data processing system of claim 5, wherein said system is one of a plurality of digital data processing systems and said selected initial time is common to each digital data processing system of said plurality of digital data processing systems.

7. The digital data processing system of claims 5 or 6, wherein said means for generating said second unique identifier code fields further comprises architectural clock means for generating architectural clock signals at predetermined intervals, and architectural counter means responsive to said clock signals for providing outputs to said processor means for counting said architectural clock signals.

8. The digital data processing system of claim 5, wherein said second unique identifier code fields contain 48 bits of binary information.

9. The digital data processing system of claim 8, wherein the least significant bit of said second unique identifier code fields represents elapsed time intervals of substantially no greater than 600 picoseconds, and the most significant bit of said second unique identifier code fields represent an elapsed time interval of substantially no less than 127 years.

10. The digital data processing system of claim 1, wherein each of said names has a uniform format.

11. The digital data processing system of claim 1 wherein:

each of said name table entries corresponds to a name of a procedure which includes an operand, each said procedure further including a name table pointer representing the location of a name table in said memory means, each of said names including a name table index value and

means responsive to a name table pointer and to the index value of a name for providing the address of the name table entry corresponding to said name, and said resolving means resolving the data of said name table entry of said procedure to provide the location in said memory means of the operand referred to by a corresponding name of said procedure.

12. The data processing system of claim 1, wherein said processor means further comprises:

name cache means for providing addresses to said memory means of name table entries,

said name cache means connected to said resolving means and responsive to said resolved data to provide name cache outputs to said memory means representing the addresses in said memory means of selected name table entries for which said name cache means has stored said resolving means ouptuts.

13. A digital data processing system in accordance with claim 1 wherein

said memory organizing means includes

means for generating unique identifiers in a form of unique identifier codes, each unique identifier code uniquely and permanently identifying a corresponding object, said unique identifier code generating means including

means for generating first unique identifier code fields for uniquely identifying said digital data processing system,

means for generating second unique identifier code fields for uniquely identifying said object, and

means for combining a first unique identifier code field and a second unique identifier code field to form a unique identifier code for permanently identifying said corresponding object, and further wherein

each of said name table entries comprises first data containing information for providing the logical address of a data item represented by the name accessed from said memory means and second data containing information for identifying a format of the data item referred to be said name, and

said resolving means resolves said first and second data for providing outputs to said memory means representing the logical address in said memory means of the data item referred to by said name.

14. A digital data processing system comprising:

universal memory means for storing and providing items of data, said data items including names representing other data items, said universal memory means including name tables containing name table entries corresponding to said names, each name table entry comprising data containing information for providing a logical address of data items represented by said name, said universal memory means including

memory organization means for organizing said universal memory means into objects permanently identified by unique identifiers, each said data item being contained in an object and being addressable by a logical address comprising data specifying the unique identifier identifying said object and the location of said data item in said identified object; and

further wherein objects which are currently used in said system are identified as active objects and said memory means further comprises means for storing the unique identifier codes of said active objects;

processor means connected to said universal memory means for processing said data items, said processor means including neme interpretations means for providing logical addresses of data items to be processed by said processor means, said name interpretation means comprising;

means for accessing a name from said memory means;

means responsive to said accessed name for providing the name table entry corresponding to said accessed name and means responsive to said name table entry for resolving the data in said name table entry, said resolution thereby providing the logical address of the data item represented by the name accessed from said memory means.