Patent GB-705479-A (GB)
Title: Electronic digital computing devices
Inventor: WILLIAMS FREDERIC CALLAND
IPC: G11C11/23
Filed: 1949-01-31
Abstract: 705,479. Calculating-apparatus; electrical. NATIONAL RESEARCH DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION. Jan. 16, 1950 [Jan. 31, 1949], No. 2680/49. Class 106 (1) In a digital computer having a main store comprising one or more C.R.T. storage devices with regenerative feed-back loops, in which regeneration occurs during scan " beats " (beat= period of time to explore a "word") and a selected "word" is made available during intervening action beats, means is provided adapted to condition routing circuits during a scan beat in accordance with information contained in an instruction "word" read from the main store during the immediately preceding action beat. The C.R.T. storage devices are of the type described in Specifications 645,691, 657,591 and 705,474 and the system of exploring the charge pattern described in Specification 682,156 is employed. In this system the exploration of the digit areas of a complete " word " one line of the raster) by the beam of the CRT occupies a period of time called a "beat." During every other beat-the "scan beats"-the regular wordby-word exploration of the surface to effect regeneration of the charge pattern takes place ; during each intervening beat-the " action " beats -the exploration is switched to the digit areas of a word selected for action. Two types of "words" are distinguished: "number words" representing data to be operated upon, and "instruction words" representing the instructions which the machine has to obey in sequence. A raster is produced on the screen of each CRT by sweep voltages applied to terminals 2, 3, Fig. 1, each cycle of voltage at the X-plates occupying one beat. The digit "0" is represented on the tube screen by a " dot " resulting from a pulse of 2 Ás duration applied to the grid 4 ; the digit 1 is represented by a "dash" on the screen caused by a pulse of 5 Ás duration. When the charge pattern is scanned the output signal from the pick-up plate 5 contains a positive transient when a dash is being traversed by the beam, and a negative transient when a dot is detected. Output signals from the plate 5 are fed to an amplifier 6. A series of "dot" pulses, produced by an oscillator and shaping circuit, is fed to the grid 4 of the CRT and, whenever the area of the tube screen being scanned bears a representation of a dot, the negative pulse delivered by the amplifier 6 has no effect on the corresponding " dot " pulse arriving at the grid 4. When, however, a dash is detected, a positive pulse from the amplifier appears on the grid of V1, together with a strobe pulse applied at a terminal 8, and the valves VI, V2 operate to extend the "dot" pulse at the grid 4 into a "dash pulse. Thus, a voltage wave consisting of dash pulses spaced in agreement with the "one" digits of the binary number which it represents, appears at the READ terminal 10. In order to erase any word stored on the screen and write a new word, represented dynamically by a train of dash pulses fed through the WRITE terminal 11, the regenerative loop is broken by applying a properly timed negative pulse through the ERASE terminal 12. The inclusion of an adding circuit in the circuit of Fig. 1 to provide circuits such as C and C.R., Fig. 8, is described in Specification 693,424. The basic train of clock pulses is generated by a circuit 20, Fig. 5, comprising a sine-wave oscillator followed by a shaping circuit and cathodefollower stage. From this basic train negativegoing 5 Ás "dash" pulses are produced by a trigger 21, and positive-going 2 Ás "dot" pulses are produced by a trigger 22; positive-going strobe pulses having their leading edges slightly delayed with respect to the coincident leading edges of the dot and dash pulses, are produced by a trigger 23. Two divider circuits 31, 32, preferably of the type described in Specification 584,329, [Group XL], serve to determine cycles of 36 pulses each in which, by means of a flipflop 33 and gates 24, 25, 26, the last four pulses in each cycle are blacked out, thus providing separated groups of 32 pulses each at the output amplifiers 27, 28, 29. The black-out wave-form also controls the X-time base 34 for all the storage tubes, the fly-back occurring during the black-out period. A so-called "halver flip-flop" 35 is reversed at each black-out period to produce voitages Ha, Hs for the alternating "action beats" and "scan beats." A circuit 36, described in Specification 705,477, [Group XL (b)]; comprises 32 trigger circuits for producing pulses on lines P0 ... P31 in succession for use in the staticisor. The main store of information S, Fig. 8, comprises a group of CRT units of the type shown in Fig. 1 which are operated in parallel and perform identical scanning cycles. A group of CRT units each incorporating an adder but performing a single-line display, form the accumulator C. The control register CR and the present instruction store PI each comprise a single CRT unit with single-line display, the former unit incorporating an adder. The digits of a word stored in the control register C.R., define the " address " in the main store S of the "instruction word" which has to be extracted therefrom. These instruction words are stored serially in the main store S so that by adding unity to the word stored in the control register C.R. at the completion of each instruction, the address of the next instruction is obtained. The instruction word read out of the main store S is written into the "present instruction" store P.I. during an action beat, and during the following scan beat conditions the routing circuits for the selection of an appropriate "number word" in the main store S, the number word being fed to one of a number of computing circuits C of an accumulator. The selection of CRTs for reading out or writing in words is performed by blacking out all except the required ones under the control of a staticisor 43. The staticisor 43, Fig. 8, contains as many stages as there are digit positions in an instruction word ; the first six stages (0 to 5) are utilized for selection of a particular line on a CRT in the main store S, and the second six stages S6 to S11, Fig. 10, are used to select the particular CRT. Pulses are applied in succession to the terminals P6 ... P11, while a pulse train representing the instruction word is applied at a terminal 90; the action component Ha of the "halver" waveform is applied at a terminal 45. When, for example, a negative pulse at 90 representing the digit "1" occurs simultaneously with the single pulse at P6, the coincidence valves D1, D2 are both cut off and a negative pulse at the control grid of the normally conducting valve V1 reverses the flip-flop V1, V2. The state of the flip-flop is registered by a circuit including potentiometer arrangements R2, R3 and R4, R5 between the anodes of valves V1 and V2, respectively, and a -150V source, and a bridge arrangement of diodes between a +120V source and a -10V source. When V1 is conducting the point between R2 and R3 assumes a voltage of -10 and the point between R4 and R5 a voltage of +120; when V2 is conducting these voltages are reversed. Cathode-follower stages 91 communicate these voltages to output points 6/0, 6/1, one of which is connected through a resistor 92 to the control grid of a black-out valve 80. In the example shown connections are made selectively between one of each such pair of output points and a resistor 92 to represent in binary form (110101) the number (53) of the CRT to be selected. Thus when the settings of the flipflops in accordance with the puise train representing the instruction word coincide with the pre-arranged selection of output points, all the resistors 92 will be returned to a potential of -10V and the valve 80 will be cut-off. This valve, also shown in Fig. 1, receives the Ha component of the halver waveform on its suppressor grid and normally functions to black out its associated CRT during each action beat. In the example described, therefore, all CRTs except the one selected will be blacked out. A negative pulse produced by the Ha component of the halver waveform at the end of the action beat resets the staticisor flip-flops. In a manner similar to that described above the staticisor cooperates with the present instruction store in controlling the transfer of number words between the main store and the accumulator &c.