Patent CH-424324-A (CH)
Inventor: GENE MYRON AMDAHL
IPC: G06F9/26
Filed: 1965-04-02
Abstract: 1,061,361. Editing data. INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION. Feb. 11, 1965 [April 6, 1964], No. 5906/65. Heading G4A. In an electronic data processing system, data characters to be edited are transferred selectively and successively under partial control of a bi-stable device from a first (" source ") storage field to a second (" pattern ") storage field initially containing control and data characters (e.g. decimal point), whereby at the conclusion of an editing operation the second field contains selected characters from the first field selectively interspersed with data characters of the second field. Bytes each have 8 bits and comprise two binary-coded decimal digits or one such and a sign (" packed " format), or one such digit plus 4 zone bits (" unpacked " format). Provision is made for interchanging the two halves of a byte in a register to simplify test on a half, testing being done generally by subtracting a constant from the number and seeing if the result is zero. The bi-stable device referred to above is a " significance trigger " which is 0 if the next " source " character is presumed non-significant and 1 if significant. The trigger is set to 1 if the " source " character is non-zero, or when a " significance start " control character is detected in the " pattern " field, and set to 0 when a " field separation " control character is detected. The characters of the " pattern " field are accessed from memory in turn. Those not control characters are retained in the " pattern " field if the "significance trigger " is at 1 but replaced by fill characters if at .0. " Field separation " control characters are replaced by fill characters. Detection of a " significance start " control character or a " digit select " control character results in the accessing of the. corresponding " source " character. If this is non-zero or if the "significance trigger " is at 1, it replaces the control character in the "pattern " field after being " unpacked " by insertion of zone bits 1111. Otherwise the control character is replaced by a fill character. The editing operation is initiated by an instruction word containing an OP code specifying either normal, editing as above or the latter plus the additional feature of storing the address in the "pattern " field of the highest significant character in the "source" field when this is detected through switching of the " significance trigger ". This facilitates later insertion of e.g. a currency symbol. The editing instruction word also specifies the number of bytes in the " pattern " field and the addresses of the highest order bytes of the " source " and " pattern " fields. These addresses are each specified by specifying a number and a register, the contents of the register being added to the number to get the address. Detection of a sign character in the " source " field sets to 1 a trigger to indicate that a sign is present, and if the sign is negative sets a further trigger to 1 to indicate this. This will cause the " significance trigger " to be set to 1. The second sign trigger and another trigger set to 1 in the presence of a non-zero " source " digit can be used to control subsequent (unspecified) operations. Reference has been directed by the Comptroller to Specification 954,801.