Europaisches Patentamt J European Patent Office @ Publication number: O 110 613 AO Office europeen des brevets ^V,J

EUROPEAN PATENT APPLICATION

Application number: 83306958.6 @ Int. CI.4: G 11 C 9/06 Date of filing: 15.11.83

(§) Priority: 15.11.82 US 441967 §) Inventor: Guyer, James M., 6 Royal Crest Drive, No. 10, 15.11.82 US 441966 Marlboro Massachusetts 01752 (US) 15.11.82 US 441837 Inventor: Epstein, David Ira, 76 Maple Street, 15.11.82 US 441839 Framingham Massachusetts 01701 (US) 15.11.82 US 441838 Inventor: Keating, David Lee, 56 Pinecrest Road, 15.11.82 US441836 Holliston Massachusetts 01746 (US) 15.11.82 US 441969 Inventor: Normoyle, Kevin B., 81 Jay Street, Stony Point New York 10980 (US) Inventor: Hummel, Mark Douglas, 70 Emmons Street, © Date of publication of application : 13.06.84 Franklin Massachusetts 02038 (US) Bulletin 84/24 Inventor: Bums, Kenneth, 59 Colonial Road, Sudbury Massachusetts 01776 (US) States: DE FR GB IT NL SE Inventor: Anderson, Walker, 18 Eqerton Road, Arlington Designated Contracting Massachusetts 02174 (US) Inventor: Veres, James Edward, 12 Foxhill Road, @ Date of deferred publication of search Farmingham Massachusetts 0107 (US) 21.01.87 Bulletin 87/4 Inventor: Kimmens, Harold R., 49 Church Street, Hudson report: Massachusetts 01749 (US) Inventor: Wallach, Steven Jeffrey, 1819 Firman Drive, © Applicant: GENERAL CORPORATION, Richardson Texas 75081 (US) 4400 Drive, Westboro 3> Representative : Pears, David Ashley et al, REDDIE & Massachusetts 01580 (US) GROSE 16 Theobalds Road, London WC1X 8PL (GB)

Digital data processing system. © The system comprises processor means (PU 106) set. A memory control unit (MC 118) performs error detec- providing addresses to a memory (102) on an address bus tion and correction and other memory related operations. (MAD 108). Data and instructions pass between the memory Serial input/output (SIO 134) provides with and the processor means by way of a data bus (MDA 110). a soft console while another unit (DBIO 136) provides com- Within the processing means (PU 106) there is an internal munication with bulk memory devices. databus (DBUS 112) which provides the data to a central processor (CPUP 122) which performs the arithmetical and logical operations commanded by the user program instruc- tions. The output of the CPU passes to another internal bus (YBUS 124) a memory data buffer (MDB 132) is used to < transfer data from the internal databus (DBUS 112) to the main memory and from the main memory to the internal bus connected between the internal CO output (YBUS 124) buses are a nibble shifter (NIBS 126) and a scratch pad memory (SPAD 128) which provides general scratch pad (0 memory space, general registers for the CPU (122) and space for tables used in transfilming logical addresses to o physical memory addresses via a memory address unit (MAD 130). The system operates under microprogram con- trol effected by a control unit (CU 104) including means (IPD 114) prefetching instructions and partially decoding the IT same and a microsequencer (US 116) which has a per- — 1 «75 manent store for kernel and a writable memory -c<~ for further microcode which can be entered via the main -IOI- 111 memory (102) to adapt the system to a specific instruction

ACTORUM AG 0110613

European Patent Application number EUROPEAN SEARCH REPORT . Office EP 83 30 6958

DOCUMENTS CONSIDERED TO BE RELEVANT Citation of document with indication, where appropriate, Relevant CLASSIFICATION OF THE Category of relevant passages to claim APPLICATION (Int. CI. 3 A EP-A-0 03 9 227 (DATA GENERAL) G 11 C 9/06 * Page 33, line 1 - page 43, line 1-6 17; figure 1 *

ELECTRONICS INTERNATIONAL, vol. 53, no. 12, May 22, 1980, pages 130-137 New York, US C.J. ALSING et al.: "Minicomputer fills mainframe's shoes" * Pages 134-135: "Efficient virtual 1-6 addressing"; figures 1,5,6 *

COMPUTER DESIGN, vol. 20, no. 7, July 1981, pages 151-156; Winchester, Mass., US P. VOGT: "Memory management add-on maps limited address space into larger virtual detects and range, TECHNICAL FIELDS corrects errors, and gives memory SEARCHED (Int. CI 3 1 protection without changing CPU architecture " G 11 C 9/06 * Page 153, column 1, line 20 - 1-6 page 156, column 1 , line 19; figures 1,2 *

WESCON CONFERENCE RECORD, vol. 24, September 16-18, 1980, Anaheim, CA, pages 23/2-1 - 23/2-7; US L. KOHN: "NS16000 brings benefits of virtual memory to microproces- sors"

* Pages 5-7: "NS 16000 Implementa- 1-6 tion" f igures 1,3 *

Place of search Date of completion of the search Examiner The Hague 30-06-1 986 LECOMTE CATEGORY OF CITED DOCUMENTS T : theory or principle underlying the invention E : earlier patent document, but published on, or X : particularly relevant if taken alone after the filing date Y : particularly relevant if combined with another D : document cited in the application document of the same category L : document cited for other reasons A : technological background O : non-written disclosure & . member of the same patent family, corresponding P : intermediate document document 0110613 European Patent Office

CLAIMS INCURRING FEES

The present European patent application comprised at the time of filing more than ten claims.

j — j All claims fees have been paid within the prescribed time limit. The present European search report has been drawn up for all claims.

j j Only part of the claims fees have been paid within the prescribed time limit. The present European search report has been drawn up for the first ten claims and for those claims for which claims fees have been paid, namely claims:

| j No claims fees have been paid within the prescribed time limit. The present European search report has been drawn up for the first ten claims.

X LACK OF UNITY OF INVENTION The Search Division considers that the present European patent application does not comply with the requirement of unity of invention and relates to several inventions or groups of inventions, namely: 1) Claims 1-6: Dual purpose scratchpad and address translation memory 2) Claims 7-12,24-27: Microcode control and sequencing 3) Claim 13: Multifunction nibble shifter 4) Claims 14-18: Microcode organization 5) Claims 19-23: Memory control

j — j All further search fees have been paid within the fixed time limit. The present European search report has been drawn up for all claims. — j j Only part of the further search fees have been paid within the fixed time limit. The present European search report has been drawn up for those parts of the European patent application which relate to the inventions in respect of which search fees have been paid, namely claims:

| x| None of the further search fees has been paid within the fixed time limit. The present European search report has been drawn up for those parts of the European patent application which relate to the invention first mentioned in the claims, namely claims: 1—6