Patent GB-907380-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in or relating to data processing systems
Inventor: WRIGHT ESMOND PHILIP GOODWIN
IPC: H04L12/54
Filed: 1958-02-06
Abstract: 907,380. Telegraph exchange systems. STANDARD TELEPHONES & CABLES Ltd. Feb. 2, 1959 [Feb. 6, 1958], No. 3990/58. Class 40 (3). A data processing system, described in connection with a telegraph exchange system, comprises a connecting circuit common to a plurality of input and output channels, which are respectively provided with individually associated stores for holding items of information, such as the code combination of a character, the connecting circuit being also provided with a group of stores individual to the respective input and output channels for retaining stores of information during processing, and equipment for transferring information between the individual channel stores and the corresponding stores in the connecting circuit so that the information can be transferred between an incoming channel and an outgoing channel after temporary retention in the storage members of the connecting circuit. The stores of the connecting circuit are examined at a slower, but related, rate in relation to that of the examination of the individual stores connected with the respective input and output channels. The central storage equipment includes means for sending interrogation signals to the individual stores to elicit transmission of their information, and these signals are sent at different positions in the signalling cycle period allocated for the detection of the signal condition on an incoming channel. In an arrangement comprising four groups, two incoming and two outgoing, each of sixteen lines, each 1L group and each 0L group is scanned by selectors 1LSC and 0LSC respectively in 0.32 m sees. An input group 1L is connected by an input line circuit 1LC to an input matrix control circuit 1MCC by which information from a line of the group is stored on a row of an input line matrix 1LM having sixteen rows of ferric or like storage elements synchronously and simultaneously associated with the incoming lines by a scanning device 1LMSC. The matrix 1LM has a number of columns, six of which are utilized as a binary counter for a time scale, the arrangement being that each association of a line with its row in the matrix 1LM steps the counter, and normally sixty-four associations set the six storage devices in the " 1 " condition representing a period of 20 m sees. corresponding to the normal duration of an element of the 5-unit code. Each row of a matrix, such as 1LM, allocated to reception, includes a further storage device indicative of the nature of the element-mark or space-detected on the associated line 1L, and this is stored until requested by the central message store. When a start element is detected on an incoming line the sixth storage member of the binary counter cells particular to that line is set to the condition " 1 " so that all the six storage cells are set to the " 1 " condition by 32 pulses corresponding to a period of 10 m secs., i.e. the centre of the start element. When this element has been recorded, the six counter elements are all zeroized so that the subsequent detecting pulses are produced at intervals of 20 m sees., i.e. at the centres of the element periods. At the request of a central store the received element on an incoming line 1L is passed from the matrix 1LM over a multiplex line 1MXL to a central control matrix CCM having 64 rows of storage elements scanned in a period of 20 m sees. The matrix CCM has four columns allowing binary representation of numbers 0 to 15, representing sixteen channels, and two further columns designating the group of channels, a third set of columns designating the number of elements stored, and a fourth set of columns effecting storage of the actual five units of a code character. An additional column stores an indication of the type of channel concerned, i.e. incoming or outgoing. The complete signals after having been recorded may be transferred to a central matrix store CMS, and transferred to the lines of the outgoing groups 0L, character by character, or at the end of a message, denoted, for example, by the predetermined repetition of a letter such as N, to form an end signal NNNN. The outgoing line matrix 0LM and control circuit OMCC together with the matrix scanning circuits 0LSC and 0LMSC operate for transmission in a manner corresponding to the operation of the similar elements during reception. The outgoing arrangement is preferably modified to send code signals each having a total duration of 150 m sees., and for this purpose the outgoing matrix 0LM has a column of storage devices indicating whether a character is odd- or even-numbered in the sequence for the associated outgoing line. The arrangement operates so that the commencement of the start element for an even-numbered signal is delayed by 10 m secs. by employing the appropriate sequence of two symmetrically interleaved sets of pulses each having the normal spacing of 20 m sees. so that the start element and following elements are delayed by 10 m sees. and the stop element of the even numbered signal is further delayed by 10 m sees. by the change over to the alternate set of the interleaved pulses to control the beginning of the start element of the odd-numbered signals of the sequence. Specifications 790,914 and 791,216 are referred to.