Digital data processing system for executing instructions containing operation codes belonging to a plurality of operation code sets and names corresponding to name table entries

A digital computer system having a memory for storing and providing data including instructions and a processor for processing data in response to the instructions and providing memory operation specifiers to the memory which specify an address of a data item and the memory operation to be performed on it. The instructions in the digital computer system include operation codes belonging to more than one set of operation codes and names representing items to be processed in the operation specified by the operation code. The data in memory further includes name table entries. Each name table entry corresponds to a name and contains information specifying the address of the item represented by the name. The processor includes apparatus for decoding each operation code in response to the operation code and to a dialect value contained in the decoding apparatus which specifies which operation code set the operation code being decoded belongs to. The processor further includes apparatus for processing names by resolving them to produce the addresses specified by their corresponding name table entries and control apparatus responsive to the instruction decoding apparatus and the name processing apparatus for controlling the processor and providing memory operation specifiers containing the addresses produced by the name processing means to the memory.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
The present patent application is closely related to U.S. patent 
application Ser. Nos. 266,429 and 266,426, both filed on even date with 
the present application and assigned to the assignee of the present 
application. 
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
1. Field of the Invention 
The present invention relates to a digital data processing system and, more 
particularly, to a multiprocess digital data processing system suitable 
for use in a data processing network and having a simplified, flexible 
user interface and flexible, multileveled, internal mechanisms. 
2. Description of Prior Art 
A general trend in the development of data processing systems has been 
towards systems suitable for use in interconnected data processing 
networks. Another trend has been towards data processing systems wherein 
the internal structure of the system is flexible, protected from users, 
and effectively invisible to the user and wherein the user is presented 
with a flexible and simplified interface to the system. 
Certain problems and shortcomings affecting the realization of such a data 
processing system have appered repeatedly in the prior art and must be 
overcome to create a data processing system having the above attributes. 
These prior art problems and limitations include the following topics. 
First, the data processing systems of the prior art have not provided a 
system wide addressing system suitable for use in common by a large number 
of data processing systems interconnected into a network. Addressing 
systems of the prior art have not provided sufficiently large address 
spaces and have not allowed information to be permanently and uniquely 
identified. Prior addressing systems have not made provisions for 
information to be located and identified as to type or format, and have 
not provided sufficient granularity. In addition, prior addressing systems 
have reflected the physical structure of particular data processing 
systems. That is, the addressing systems have been dependent upon whether 
a particular computer was, for example, an 8, 16, 32, 64 or 128 bit 
machine. Since prior data processing systems have incorporated addressing 
mechanisms wherein the actual physical structure of the processing system 
is apparent to the user, the operations a user could perform have been 
limited by the addressing mechanisms. In addition, prior processor systems 
have operated as fixed word length machines, further limiting user 
operations. 
Prior data processing systems have not provided effective protection 
mechanisms preventing one user from effecting another user's data and 
programs without permission. Such protection mechanisms have not allowed 
unique, positive identification of users requesting access to information, 
or of information, nor have such mechanisms been sufficiently flexible in 
operation. In addition, access rights have pertained to the users rather 
than to the information, so that control of access rights has been 
difficult. Finally, prior art protection mechanisms have allowed the use 
of "Trojan Horse arguments". That is, users not having access rights to 
certain information have been able to gain access to that information 
through another user or procedure having such access rights. 
Yet another problem of the prior art is that of providing a simple and 
flexible interface user interface to a data processing system. The 
character of user's interface to a data processing system is determined, 
in part, by the means by which a user refers to and identifies operands 
and procedures of the user's programs and by the instruction structure of 
the system. Operands and procedures are customarily referred to and 
identified by some form of logical address having points of reference, and 
validity, only within a user's program. These addresses must be translated 
into logical and physical addresses within a data processing system each 
time a program is executed, and must then be frequently retranslated or 
generated during execution of a program. In addition, a user must provide 
specific instructions as to data format and handling. As such reference to 
operands or procedures typically comprise a major portion of the 
instruction stream of the user's program and requires numerous machine 
translations and operations to implement. A user's interface to a 
conventional system is thereby complicated, and the speed of execution of 
programs reduced, because of the complexity of the program references to 
operands and procedures. 
A data processing system's instruction structure includes both the 
instructions for controlling system operations and the means by which 
these instructions are executed. Conventional data processing systems are 
designed to efficiently execute instructions in one or two user languages, 
for example, FORTRAN or COBOL. Programs written in any other language are 
not efficiently executable. In addition, a user is often faced with 
difficult programming problems when using any high level language other 
than the particular one or two languages that a particular conventional 
system is designed to utilize. 
Yet another problem in conventional data processing systems is that of 
protecting the system's internal mechanisms, for example, stack mechanisms 
and internal control mechanisms, from accidental or malicious interference 
by a user. 
Finally, the internal structure and operation of prior art data processing 
systems have not been flexible, or adaptive, in structure and operation. 
That is, the internal structure and operation of prior systems have not 
allowed the systems to be easily modified or adapted to meet particular 
data processing requirements. Such modifications may include changes in 
internal memory capacity, such as the addition or deletion of special 
purpose subsystems, for example, floating point or array processors. In 
addition, such modifications have significantly effected the users 
interface with the system. Ideally, the actual physical structure and 
operation of the data processing system should not be apparent at the user 
interface. 
The present invention provides data processing system improvements and 
features which solve the above-described problems and limitations. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
The present invention relates generally to digital computer systems and 
more specifically to digital computer systems employing instructions 
containing operand syllables called names and operation codes which may 
belong to several sets of operation codes. The names represent items of 
data to be processed in the operation specified by the operation code. 
The digital computer system includes a memory for storing and providing 
items of data including the instructions and a processor connected to the 
memory. The processor responds to the instructions by processing data and 
providing memory operation specifiers specifying memory operations and 
addresses of data to the memory; the memory stores and provides data as 
specified by the memory operation specifiers. 
In addition to the instructions, the data items include name table entries. 
There is a name table entry corresponding to each name. A name's 
corresponding name table entry contains information which specifies the 
address of the item represented by the name. 
The processor includes apparatus for decoding the operation codes, 
apparatus for processing the names to obtain the addresses of the data 
represented by the names, and apparatus for controlling the processor. The 
decoding apparatus includes a register containing a dialect value 
specifying the operation code set to which the operation code currently 
being decoded belongs. The decoding apparatus decodes the operation code 
in response to the operation code and the dialect value. The name 
processing apparatus responds to the names contained in the instructions 
by resolving each name to produce the address specified by the name table 
entry corresponding to the name. The apparatus for controlling the 
processor responds to the operation decoding apparatus and the name 
processing apparatus by controlling operation of the processor as required 
to perform the operation specified by the operation code and dialect 
value. It responds to operation of the name processing apparatus by 
forming memory operation specifiers including the addresses provided by 
the name processing apparatus. 
It is thus an object of the invention to provide an improved digital data 
processing system. 
It is another object of the invention to provide a digital data processing 
system having simplified instructions. 
It is a further object of the invention to provide a digital data 
processing system wherein the instructions contain operation code 
belonging to a plurality of operation code sets and operands whose form 
does not depend on the operation code set. 
It is a still further object of the invention to provide a digital data 
processing system wherein the instructions contain operation codes 
belonging to a plurality of operation code sets and names corresponding to 
name table entries which contain information sopecifying the addresses of 
the data items represented by the names. 
It is yet another object of the invention to provide a processor including 
apparatus for decoding operation codes belonging to a plurality of 
operation code sets and apparatus for processing names to obtain the 
addresses specified by the name table entries corresponding to the names. 
Other objects, advantages and features of the present invention will be 
understood by those of ordinary skill in the art, after referring to the 
following detailed description of the preferred embodiments and drawings 
wherein:

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
The preferred embodiments of the present invention are disclosed in Ward 
Baxter II, et al., Digital Data Processing System having an I/O Means 
using Unique Address-Providing and Access Priority Control Techniques, 
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 266,402, filed May 22, 1981. That 
application, which is owned by the same assignee as the present 
application, is hereby incorporated by reference into the present 
application. Particular attention is directed to Chapter 3(B) of that 
application and to the Figures referred to therein.