John P Grandmaison

43251196, Apr 13, 1982

Jan 19, 1977

5/760783

John P. Grandmaison - Hampton NH
Robert E. Huettner - Acton MA
John H. Vernon - Milford MA
Kin C. Yu - Burlington MA

Honeywell Information Systems Inc. - Waltham MA

G06F 946
G06F 922

364200

Firmware generated commands provided by a control store in a microprogrammed communications processor which is coupled in a system including a main memory and a central processing unit control the processing of instructions from the central processing unit, interrupts from the communications channels and servicing of such channels if a channel status change is detected. The firmware also controls the operation of the servicing of such channels by providing a control mechanism by which data is read from or written into the main memory. Further, interrupts which are not handled immediately are handled in a deferred interrupt arrangement.

42610338, Apr 7, 1981

Jan 19, 1977

5/760782

Richard A. Lemay - Bolton MA
Robert E. Huettner - Acton MA
John P. Grandmaison - Hampton NH
John H. Vernon - Milford MA

Honeywell Information Systems Inc. - Waltham MA

G06F 304
G06F 906
G06F 1300

364200

A communications processor is coupled between a main memory and a plurality of communications channels and with a central processing unit and includes control mechanisms for processing the transfer of information between the processor and the main memory with minimum interruption of the central processing unit. The processor further includes control tables and a plurality of control routines enabling the processing of the transfer of the information between the processor and the channels. The routines are unique to the communications channel characteristics of the device coupled with the channel being serviced and is configurable to reflect any changes made in such characteristics.

41330307, Jan 2, 1979

Jan 19, 1977

5/760773

Robert E. Huettner - Acton MA
John P. Grandmaison - Hampton NH
John H. Vernon - Milford MA
Richard A. Lemay - Bolton MA
Edward Beauchemin - Marlboro MA

Honeywell Information Systems Inc. - Waltham MA

G06F 300
G06F 1300

364200

Data is transferred between a main memory in a data processing system and communication channels under the control of communications control blocks provided in an auxiliary memory, each of which control blocks includes a starting address, range and status information so as to enable the transfer of data to data blocks included in the main memory as indicated by the starting address in the control blocks. A predetermined number of control blocks is allocated in the auxiliary memory for each communications channel and the transfer of all such data is performed utilizing as many of the predetermined number of control blocks as required for the channel until the transfer is complete as indicated by the last such control block utilized in the transfer. Control blocks are loaded in the auxiliary memory under control of the central processor of the system and are periodically accessed by the processor to determine the status of data transfer operations. Circuits are provided for preventing the loading in the auxiliary memory of more than the predetermined number of control blocks for a channel and for preventing the execution of a status inquiry for a channel when no control blocks for that channel are in the active state.

43365884, Jun 22, 1982

Jan 19, 1977

5/760784

John H. Vernon - Milford MA
John P. Grandmaison - Hampton NH
Robert E. Huettner - Acton MA

Honeywell Information Systems Inc. - Waltham MA

G06F 304
G06F 704

364200

A communication processor is coupled to recognize and handle on a priority basis, service interrupt requests from a plurality of communication line adapters. The processor is also adapted to perform a firmware-controlled scan of the communication line adapters, completely independently of any data transfers involving such adapters, to determine the status of the communication lines handled thereby and, on detection of a status which is changed from a previously stored status, to store the new status in the processor and take any action necessary as indicated by a command previously stored in the processor.