Patent Document ID: 4227245
Application ID: 05258800

Base Claim:
1. A data gathering system for collecting data from a plurality of analog signal sources, comprising: a digital computer system; means for converting an analog signal into a digital value when supplied with an analog signal address, said means connecting said plurality of analog signal sources to said digital computer system; a plurality of machine readable definitions each defining an analog signal scanning operation, and each specifying an analog signal address and a variable scanning frequency or period; means for operating said computer system to accept and to store said definitions; means for operating said computer system to establish linkages between groups at least portions of said stored definitions such that each group includes portions of definitions which specify the same scanning frequency or period; and means for operating said computer system to process each group of linked definition portions periodically at a rate determined by the scanning frequencies or periods specified by the definitions whose portions comprise each linked group, where processing comprises following the linkages from one definition to the next and carrying out the analog signal scanning operation called for by each definition.

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Claim 11:
11. A data gathering system in accordance with claim 1 wherein the computer system includes a scheduling program containing at least one table relating the identifier to the address of each executable system job definition, wherein the means for operating the computer system to establish linkages includes means for assigning an identifier to each such linkage and means for supplying the identifier along with a linkage address to said scheduler, wherein the means for operating said computer system to process comprises means for periodically supplying each linkage identifier to said scheduler at the desired frequency rate and separate means for interpreting definition portions and for carrying out scanning operations, and wherein said scheduler includes means for supplying the address of a linkage to said means for interpreting after an identifier assigned to a linkage is supplied to said scheduler by said means for periodically supplying.